This latest book by Tarquin Blake documents over eighty abandoned Church of Ireland churches, preserving a record of fragile religious ruins. Their history, dating back to early Christianity in Ireland, paints a stark portrait of a Protestant aristocracy and a Catholic majority. As Protestant congregations declined in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries an attempt was made to keep churches open by uniting parishes.

Eventually non-existent congregations forced closure of many churches. Valuables were removed, churches deconsecrated and abandoned. Blake’s haunting images of crumbling ruins and history of the churches tell another fascinating story of troubled times.