Souperism was a phenomenon of the Irish Great Famine. Protestant Bible societies set up schools in which starving children were fed, on the condition of receiving Protestant religious instruction at the same time. Its practitioners were reviled by the Catholic families who had to choose between Protestantism and starvation.[1][2] People who converted for food were known as "soupers", "jumpers" and "cat breacs".[3] In the words of their peers, they "took the soup".[4][5] Although souperism did not occur frequently, the perception of it had a lasting effect on the popular memory of the Famine. It blemished the relief work by Protestants who gave aid without proselytising, and the rumour of souperism may have discouraged starving Catholics from attending soup kitchens for fear of betraying their faith.[6][7]
- ^ Thomas Edward Jordan (1998). Ireland's Children: Quality of Life, Stress, and Child Development in the Famine Era. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 72–73. ISBN 9780313307522.
- ^ Whelan, Irene (2006). "Religious Rivalry and the Making of Irish-American Identity". In Joseph Lee and Marion R. Casey (ed.). Making the Irish American. NYU Press. pp. 278–279. ISBN 9780814752081.
- ^ Poirteir, Cathal (September 1995). Famine Echoes – Folk Memories of the Great Irish Famine. Gill & Macmillan. pp. 136–138. ISBN 978-0717165841.
- ^ Conley, Carolyn (1999). Melancholy Accidents. Lexington Books. p. 170. ISBN 9780739100073.
- ^ Celia Keenan (2003). "Narrative Challenges: The Great Irish Famine in Recent Stories for Children". In Ann Lawson Lucas (ed.). The Presence of the Past in Children's Literature. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 116. ISBN 9780313324833.
- ^ Bartoletti, Susan Campbell (2014). Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 78–80. ISBN 9780547530857.
Overall, soupers and souperism were rare, but where they did exist, they left a lasting and bitter legacy.
- ^ Coohill, Joseph (2014). Ireland: A Short History. Oneworld Publications. p. 65. ISBN 9781780745367.