This episode is an interview with Dr Karina Bénazech Wendling about the subject she will be addressing at the Irish Baptist Historical Society on Thursday 13th May 2025 at 5:45pm

This lecture will dive into the long and complex history of Gaelic suppression in Ireland—from medieval laws designed to crush Irish culture, to the radical shift brought by Baptist missionary movements determined to bring the Bible to Irish-speaking Catholics in their native tongue. Drawing from rare archival material spanning Oxford, Dublin, and the Vatican, our speaker reveals how unlikely religious alliances and colonial strategies reshaped the relationship between faith, identity, and language in Ireland. Discover how the Irish language—once seen as rebellious—became a tool for conversion and cultural negotiation, and how Baptist innovations opened the way for a new appreciation of the Irish language by Protestants, at least in Ireland.

Karina Bénazech Wendling is Associate Professor at the University of Lorraine and a member of IDEA research team, as well as Associate Researcher at LEM-CNRS. Since she got her PhD in contemporary history from PSL prepared at EPHE/GSRL-CNRS, she has been working on a postdoctoral project entitled ‘Emancipation and education in the transatlantic space: circulation of ideas and struggles for influence, 18th-19th century,’ prepared under the direction of Hubert Bost, Director of Studies at EPHE-PSL. She has published several articles in international journals and has two forthcoming books: Converting Ireland: religious education, language and nationalism, Manchester University Press, and De la Bible au soupérisme: éducation, missions protestantes et nationalisme en Irlande au premier XIXe siècle, Honoré Champion. She also manages the MIRCOM research project, which inverstigates the role of the Jewish and Protestant minorities in redefining national identities in France, Ireland and Italy (1789-1948).