Author Description

In this publication, the author deals with the area in Irish social history that concerns the phenomenon of aspirants for the priesthood who, for various reasons, were never ordained as Catholic priests. In the vernacular, they were known as spoiled priests, priesteens or, sagarts. This treatise delves deep to the very kernel of how religion, priests and the Catholic Church infiltrated and wove itself into the very fabric of Irish society and Irish life. It relates the almost unbelievably sad story of the pathetic, fictitious, Gaysa (the principal character in this narrative – a spoilt priest) and the repercussions his rejection for the priesthood had on his life and the lives of many around him … This is rich social history and, should be of particular interest to anyone curious about or studying just how Ireland and Irish society, dominated by the Church, developed in the way that it did.