Arguing that it is impossible to understand the present religious and political strife in Northern Ireland since 1969, without an appreciation of the vicissitudes of the Catholic community in Ulster from the defeat of O'Neill in 1603, this work presents the story of Ulster Catholicism in its religious, social and political aspects over the last 400 years. It introduces the reader to some of the historical complexities of the Ulster situation and to the attempts of Catholicism to grapple with its minority status in Ulster life. Ulster Catholic identity is seen as the product of a long and bitter struggle to assert distinctiveness against an ethos hostile to Catholicism. On the other hand, the author warns against the simplistic view which assumes that there is historically a single unified entity with a central purpose and will which we call "Ulster Catholicism".