Charitable initiatives in eighteenth-century Ireland – schooling, hospitals, encouraging new manufactures, crops and farming methods, even succouring foundlings, mendicants and prostitutes – are a familiar aspect of this highly stratified world. Some have been closely investigated already. Also, the motives of the philanthropists have been suggested: in some cases, a quest for contemporary prestige and posthumous acclaim; in others, Christian, humanitarian and mercenary promptings. The ventures were undertaken, managed and overseen by collectives – the Dublin equivalents of the voluntary associations which multiplied across Christian Europe and America. They owed much (frequently too much) to determined individuals. As a result, Henry Maule and Hugh Boulter, both Church of Ireland bishops, Thomas Prior, Samuel Madden, John Putland, a ubiquitous but elusive Dublin rentier, and particularly Lady Arabella Denny are credited with responsibility. Dr Sonnelitter draws together what has hitherto been diffuse. While acknowledging that ‘rational self-interest’ inspired many benefactors, she apportions roles to the strengthening quests for improvement and enlightenment. Sharp spurs to action came from the parlous economic and physical conditions in which most of the population existed. Seeing it as essential background, she sketches the political system, run largely by and on behalf of the small Church of Ireland minority, and shows how civic-minded activists, whether in parliament, their parishes or groups, took the lead. Through activism and altruism, they sought to justify their legal and material privileges. The substance of this useful study is a methodical investigation of several public-spirited operations, mainly Dublin-based. Dr Sonnelitter does not dissent from the generally harsh verdicts of those who have previously analysed these schemes. An exception is Lady Arabella Denny, whose personal oversight of the Magdalene Asylum (a shelter for prostitutes) showed greater sensitivity and discrimination than did most of the works. Indeed, Denny emerges as one of a very few in eighteenth-century Ireland who is wholly praiseworthy.

The focus of the book is avowedly Dublin and the established Protestant church. Some of the charities, especially the educational and medical ones, assisted provincials. It remains to be uncovered how much local help was organised, either on Dublin models or independently. Similarly, the charities of the substantial Presbyterian communities in the north, of the cohesive Quakers, and of the Catholic majority are largely hidden from view. Visual evidence – not just the portrait of Lady Arabella but the drawing of Hackball, king of the beggars, by Hugh Douglas Hamilton – is not included, although they would have reinforced vividly this sober and often sombre text. On occasion it has been suggested that the initiatives in Ireland were precocious, notably the opening of hospitals and funding them in part through regular musical performances. Dr Sonnelitter, however, stresses the similarities between English and Irish activities, and indeed the indebtedness of the latter to the former. In the main, she follows predecessors in doubting whether the interventions did much to reduce mortality, poverty, and destitution, or to improve education and conduct. It is tantalizing to note the possible influences from continental Europe, but these are not pursued: Bishop Maule, the begetter of projects for English schooling, recorded his admiration for the German Pietists. Lady Arabella Denny made at least one lengthy continental tour, which included the Low Countries where practical philanthropy had long flourished. Physicians, heavily involved in several of the endeavours, had usually studied abroad. In several instances – the Incorporated Society and the Dublin Society – there were fierce disagreements over priorities and methods. If some arose from clashing personalities, others told of fundamental divergences as to how problems were best addressed. There is, then, room still to investigate further the sources of the thinking behind what was attempted in Ireland. Meanwhile, thanks to Dr Sonnelitter’s careful account, it is possible to appreciate the range and the workings (typically disappointing) of these schemes.