Amazon.com description: Product Description: Between 1864 and 1867 Fanny Taylor made many trips to Ireland, and Irish Homes and Irish Hearts (1867) is an eyewitness account of her visits to the many Irish Catholic religious orders and their institutions: these include Magdalene homes, reform schools, lunatic asylums, orphanages, workhouses, infirmaries, and schools. While Irish Homes and Irish Hearts is a relatively uncritical study of the philanthropic and educational activities of the Irish religious orders from the perspective of a well-informed outsider, it remains a valuable source of information for mid-nineteenth-century Irish social and religious history.