One of six drawings commissioned by the Protestant, Irish Church Missions (ICM) in the late 1850s in securing financial support from their English support base is entitled ‘A street scene in Kilkenny’. In setting the context for the publication of this drawing of High Street, Kilkenny, this article traces the fraught engagement of the ICM in Kilkenny as they sought to spread biblical Protestantism amongst the Roman Catholic population. The hostile environment vividly depicted in the drawing is assessed in this article and a transcription of an explanation of the drawing published in 1860 is included as an appendix.