The aim of this thesis is to present an understanding of the complexity of some of the responses and reactions of different eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Roman Catholic parish congregations and their clergy from Cloyne Diocese, Co. Cork to their changing and often challenging circumstances. A rich repository of source materials such as the visitation books of Roman Catholic Bishops, clerical correspondence and other sources has been relied upon. A scalar analytical framework ranging from the personal, to the intergroup, to the international is utilised. Key factors in the re-emergence of this Church and its communities such as historical and cultural awareness, the interdependent efforts of different social groups and the fact that Cloyne was never a bounded entity in the sense that it was separated from the wider Catholic world and/or other external influences are identified. While some of Cloyne’s Catholics may have tended to view themselves as a “separate and injured community” (Dickson, 2005, p. 264) on account of the varied impacts of colonialism, that this may also have occurred as a consequence of social class changes cannot be ignored. That the successful social re-emergence of some Catholics and their associated communities may have come about at the marginalisation of others is factored into this analysis. Consequently, this study presents an exploration of the interplay between a spectrum of different personal, religious, cultural, geographical, socio-economic and other worlds, each of varying depths and complexities, with some overlapping, blending and intersecting, and others avoiding and/or in conflict with each other and/or with other worlds.