An unlikely candidate tells story of the Catholic Church in Ireland and Britain

As an uncompromising atheist, Roy Hattersley is an unlikely candidate to tell the story of the Catholic Church in Ireland and Britain, but he does so in masterly style, as Michael Duggan discovers 

ACCORDING to the Introduction to this book, the history of the Catholic Church in Great Britain and Ireland is “a series of adventure stories, some of which have happy endings”. Roy Hattersley, however, is still an unlikely fit for the role of storyteller. Grand Old Man of British Labour Party politics, and a writer with 25 books under his belt, Hattersley is an uncompromising atheist.

Nevertheless, religion, “the belief in the unbelievable”, fascinates him. On balance, he believes that Catholics on these islands have been more sinned against than sinning. Theirs is “a triumph of faith and a victory for the moral certainty that provides the confidence that reasonable doubt cannot provide.”