It is a commonplace to observe that the life of the Anglo-Irish community was profoundly altered by the Act of Union in 1800, but this was particularly true in its ecclesiastical effects. Whereas in the eighteenth century the antipathy between Protestant and Roman Catholic had diminished and even as late as 1824 the possibility of a union of the Church of Ireland with the Roman Church was seriously being discussed by older churchmen, the effect of the Act of Union was to isolate the Anglo-Irish. Reluctantly they had accepted the Act and now, dependent upon it for their survival, many of them took refuge in a ‘garrison mentality’ which invested their ascendancy with almost sacred connotations by which their community was transformed into a ‘faithful remnant’ with a mission to bring light and truth to Ireland.