A Short History of Ireland

This concise and even-handed account gives the history of Ireland since the earliest times. It shirks nothing, exaggerates nothing. The heroes and villains are there, the former perhaps not so heroic, the others less evil than tradition has painted them. Based upon up-to-date research, the book covers fights and famines, country and town, Protestants and Catholics, Rome Rule and Home Rule, Church and State, and brings the account right up to the autumn of 1995 and the end of the first year of peace in Northern Ireland.