The contribution of Presbyterian non-subscription to Irish religion and society, 1830-1876

The events of 1830 and 1876 provide natural starting and finishing points for this study, which traces the development of this liberal form of theology from the time at which it broke away from the increasingly orthodox outlook developing within Irish dissent to the moment at which the most radical thinkers within the Non-Subscribing tradition attempted to establish themselves as a separate organisation.

With the exception of the unpublished work of McMillan,1 this period of the history of Irish Non- Subscription has been almost entirely neglected, and this thesis therefore aims to fill a significant gap in the documentation of Irish dissent.