Staff or students in Religion and History departments may be interested in a project being undertaken by researchers in Durham and Reading Universities involving a study of British state prayers and holy-days from the 1540s to the 1940s. Their work includes analysis of how the occasions were marked in Ireland and will explore their wider significance for politics, religion and culture over the four centuries. The website notes of the occasions that they "commanded considerable popular reverence but...could also be a focus for expressions of religious and political dissent".The researchers are also studying the publication of the prayers and texts through the period including those published by the royal printers for the Church of Ireland before disestablishment.
The project will result in a book considering the significance of these occasions, typically summoned by the ruling monarch or government of the time, and their effect on all aspects of culture in Britain and Ireland. In addition, they will produce an authoritative edition of the original printed forms of the prayers and related texts.
