Mary Peckham Magray argues that the Irish Catholic cultural revolution in the nineteenth century was effected not only by male elites, as previous scholarship has claimed, but also by the most overlooked and underestimated women in Ireland: the nuns. Once thought to be merely passive servants of the male clerical hierarchy, women's religious orders were in fact at the very center of the creation of a devout Catholic culture in Ireland.

Often educated, articulate, and evangelical, nuns were much more socially engaged and personally ambitious than traditional stereotypical views have held. They used their wealth and their authority to effect changes in both the religious practices and common behavior of the larger Irish Catholic population and, by doing so, Magray argues, deserve a far larger place in the Irish historical record than they have previously been accorded.

Magray's work will be of interest to scholars and students of Irish history, religious history, women's studies, and sociology.