This is the story of the distribution of the Bible throughout Ireland by what began as an evangelical society two hundred years ago, and has developed into an ecumenical organisation today.Beginning as the Dublin Bible Society, it very quickly became nationwide, with branches, auxiliaries and associated societies in every county. As the Hibernian Bible Society it distributed copies of the Scriptures without comment in this country, and through the British and Foreign Bible Society contributed to their worldwide dissemination.Reorganised in the 1960s as the National Bible Society of Ireland in the Irish Republic and as the Bible Society in Northern Ireland, it now participates very fully in the work of the United Bible Societies.The author traces the history of the Society through a number of controversies, and its responses to changing political and religious opinion.
Dudley Levistone Cooney entered the Methodist ministry in 1969 and has served in the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. He has been President of the Wesley Historical Society (Irish branch) since 1997, and is currently enjoying his second term as President of the Old Dublin Society. He has published histories of several Methodist circuits, and one of the Christian Endeavour Movement in Ireland. His The Methodists in Ireland: A Short History was published by The Columba Press in 2001.
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