1. Introduction -- 1.1. Ends of the century -- 1.2. Modes and frameworks of interpretation -- 2. The birth of modern Irish politicism 1790-8 -- 2.1. The origins of the crisis -- 2.2. Constitutional radicalism to revolution, 1791-8 -- 3. Disuniting kingdoms, emancipating Catholics, 1799-1850 -- 3.1. The union, 1799-1801 -- 3.2. The Catholic question, 1799-1829 -- 3.3. Justice for Ireland, 1830-41 -- 3.4. Utilitarians and romantics, 1841-8 -- 3.5. The Orange party, 1798-1853 -- 4. The ascendancy of the land question, 1845-91 -- 4.1. Guilty men and the great famine -- 4.2. Pivot or accelerator? -- 4.3. Brigadiers and Fenians -- 4.4. Home rule : a first definition -- 4.5. Idealists and technicians : the Parnellite party, 1880-6 -- 4.6. A union of hearts and a broken marriage : Parnellism, 1886-91 -- 5. Greening the red, white and blue : the end of the union, 1891- 1921 -- 5.1. The Irish Parliamentary party, 1891-1914 -- 5.2. Paths to the post office : alternatives to the Irish Parliamentary party, 1891-1914 -- 5.3. The parliamentarians and their enemies, 1914-18 -- 5.4. Making and unmaking unionism, 1853-1921 -- 5.5. Other men's wounds : the troubles, 1919-21 -- 5.6. Trucileers, staters and irregulars -- 6. Three quarters of a nation once again : independent Ireland -- 6.1. Saorstát Éireann, 1922-32 -- 6.2. Manifest destiny : De Valera's Ireland, 1932-48 -- 6.3. Towards a redefinition of the national ideal, 1948-58 -- 6.4. The age of Lemass, 1957-73 -- 7. Northern Ireland, 1920-72 : specials, peelers and provos -- 8. The two Irelands, 1973-98 -- 8.1. The Republic, 1973-98 -- 8.2. Northern Ireland, 1973-98 -- 9. Ireland in the new millennium -- 9.1. The republic, 1998-2008 -- 9.2. Northern Ireland, 1998-2008 -- 9.3. The end of Irish history?

Offering fresh approaches to the interpretation of modern Irish political history, this book reappraises political divides and explores the tension between nationalism and unionism as well as social and economic issues