Irish artists have, over a century and a half, produced art of a quality that matches any in the international arena, yet their work remains largely unknown. This book provides a highly readable introduction to the history and development of Irish art to the end of the twentieth century.

"The publication of these texts in a single volume enables the reader to create useful historical comparisons as well as facilitating the careful examination of historical documents. Sources in Irish Art: A Reader will be an ideal text for Irish Studies and relevant Art History courses both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels."--BOOK JACKET.

All places undergo change, but in few has this change been quite as sweeping as Ireland – both the independent Republic of Ireland and dependent Northern Ireland – so it is good to see where it is heading at present. Obviously, that has to be judged on the background of where it is coming from, not only over the past decade or so but over centuries and, indeed, millennia. This new edition of Historical Dictionary of Ireland is an excellent resource for discovering the history of Ireland. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The cross-referenced dictionary section has over 600 entries on significant persons, places and events, political parties and institutions (including the Catholic church) with period forays into literature, music and the arts. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Ireland.

Until recently little attention was paid to the role of art in constructing the "story" of the Irish nation. This wide-ranging study of Irish pictures and sculpture opens up the subject by providing a fresh interdisciplinary approach. Each work is analyzed beyond its strictly art historical relevance. A deeper investigation into the context in which a work was produced reveals much about the aspirations and ideological ambitions of artists, those commissioning works, and the viewing public. The study of such diverse topics as the representation of the Irish peasant, the behind-the-scenes tensions in setting up a national gallery for Ireland, the erecting of political monuments, Church art, West of Ireland landscape painting, and the difference in nationalistic fervor among artists as diverse as Albert G. Power and Jack B. Yeats unveil fascinating testimony about Ireland's collective national "needs" and its constructs of identity.

A New History of Ireland is the largest scholarly project in modern Irish history. In 9 volumes, it provides a comprehensive new synthesis of modern scholarship on every aspect of Irish history and prehistory, from the earliest geological and archaeological evidence, through the Middle Ages, down to the present day. Volume VII covers a period of major significance in Ireland's history. It outlines the division of Ireland and the eventual establishment of the Irish Republic. It provides comprehensive coverage of political developments, north and south, as well as offering chapters on the economy, literature in English and Irish, the Irish language, the visual arts, emigration and immigration, and the history of women. The contributors to this volume, all specialists in their field, provide the most comprehensive treatment of these developments of any single-volume survey of twentieth-century Ireland.

At the time of his death in 1945, Albert Power was the leading nationalist sculptor in the Irish Free State, yet within a few decades he was almost forgotten. This first major examination of his life and career tells of one artist’s contribution to national identity before and after political independence. In sculpture, at that time, the emphasis was on creating a pantheon of ‘new’ Irish heroes by means of monumental and portrait commissions. Power’s work, however, sprang from deeply held nationalist beliefs and he felt that subject matter alone was insufficient to ensure a distinctive Irish art. Wherever possible he deliberately chose native stone, believing that this best conveyed a nationalist sentiment, such as the limestone he used in the beloved monument to Padraic Ó Conaire in Galway. His political commissions from 1922 onward reveal the new State’s desire for a national political and cultural identity, and in this book Power’s sculpture is explored both at the time of its production and within the broader context of writers and artists who wished to contribute to the new nation’s cultural identity, a legacy that modern Ireland enjoys today.