Funding a Roman Catholic Church in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

… from many a hidden spring streams of riches shall burst forth.

In the period 1790 to 1847 more than two thousand Catholic churches were built in Ireland. The money to build these churches (and others later in the nineteenth century) came from affluent Catholics of the merchant, professional, and tenant-farming classes, a few aristocratic Catholics, members of the Catholic gentry, the poor of the parishes, and from members of other churches. Money was given by donations (often monthly or annually) from the affluent, and from the poor by weekly collections. Other important sources included bequests, fund-raising ventures such as raffles and concerts, and charity sermons. People from all social classes sometimes gave their time, skill, and labour towards the end of raising Catholic churches, without asking for payment.