Ireland was the first country to which Ignatius Loyola sent a Jesuit mission in 1542. This book recounts the history and influence of this religious presence in Ireland. Before the Suppression, whenever the penal laws were relaxed, the Jesuits set about teaching and preaching in Waterford, Cork, Galway and many other towns. After the resoration of the society in 1814 they founded some of the country's leading schools - Clongowes in fact opened several months before Pope Pius VIII declared the order restored. The Jesuits were also responsible for keeping University College in Dublin in existence for the 25 years before the establishment of the National University. The Jesuits maintained public churches, produced a scholarly journal, took part in numerous public controversies and involved themselves at many levels in the work of social justice. Irish Jesuits were also always active abroad, running the Irish colleges in Salamanca, Lisbon, Rome and elsewhere in the earlier centuries, and planting the Society in Australia, Hong Kong and Zambia in modern times. The author also wrote Thrown among Strangers.