Daydream believer

IT could be said, in historical terms, the fall of the Irish ascendancy marked the rise of another ruling class the Catholic church.

Multi-acred demesnes became self-sufficient monasteries, convents, boarding schools, orphanages and borstals.

Many of these institutions were built from the donations of wealthy patrons, especially in the post-Famine era, when the religious orders were to the fore in alleviating a threatened meltdown of peasant society.