John Redmond's constitutional, parliamentary, Irish Party went from dominating Irish politics to oblivion in just four years from 1914-1918. The goal of limited Home Rule, peacefully achieved, appeared to die with it. Given the speed of the party's collapse, its death has been seen as inevitable. Though such views have been challenged, there has been no detailed study of the Irish Party in the last years of union with Britain, before the world war and the Easter Rising transformed Irish politics. Through a study of five counties in provincial Ireland - Leitrim, Longford, Roscommon, Sligo, and Westmeath - that history has now been written. Far from being 'rotten', the Irish Party was representative of nationalist opinion and still capable of self-renewal and change. However, the Irish nationalism at this time was also suffused with a fierce anglophobia and sense of grievance, defined by its enemies, which rapidly came to the fore, first in the Home Rule crisis and then in the war. Redmond's project, the peaceful attainment of Home Rule, simply could not be realised.

Professor Tom Garvin's classic work studies the growth of nationalism in Ireland from the middle of the eighteenth century to modern times. It traces the continuity of tradition from earlier organisations, such as the United Irishmen and the agrarian Ribbonmen of the eighteenth century, through the followers of Daniel O'Connell, the Fenians and the Land League in the nineteenth century to the Irish political parties of today, including Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, Labour Party and Fine Gael. The dual nature of Irish nationalism is shown in sharp focus. Despite the secular and liberal leanings of many Irish leaders and theoreticians, their followers were frequently sectarian and conservative in social outlook. This book demonstrates how this dual legacy has influenced the politics of modern Ireland. The Evolution of Irish Nationalist Politics: Table of Contents - Irish parties and Irish politics The Irish republic: post-colonial politics in a western European state Political culture and political organisation Geography, economics and method - The origins of Irish popular politics Roots of Irish popular nationalism The beginnings of urban radical political organisation, 1750–1800 Agrarianism, religion and revolution, 1760–1800 - The development of nationalist popular politics, 1800–48 Secret societies before the Famine: the rise of Ribbonism Political mobilisation in pre-Famine nationalist Ireland - Secret societies and party politics after the Famine The social background Electoral politics after the Famine The recrudescence of republicanism: Fenianism and the Agrarians The IRB and Irish politics after the Land War - Agrarianism, nationalism and party politics, 1874–95 Political mobilisation and the agrarian campaign The development of the Irish National League The Parnell split: the collapse of the Irish National League - The reconstruction of nationalist politics, 1891–1910 The rebuilding of the parliamentary party The rise of the Hibernians - The new nationalism and military conspiracy, 1900–16 The development of cultural nationalism and the origins of Sinn Féin Fenians, Volunteers and insurrection - Elections, revolution and civil war, 1916–23 The rise of Sinn Féin The electoral landslide of December 1918 The Republic of Ireland, 1919–23 - The origins of the party system in independent Ireland The ancestry of the Irish party system The legitimation of the state and the building of political parties - An analysis of electoral politics, 1923–48 Parties and elections in the Irish Free State Turnout, 1922–44 Sinn Féin III/Fianna Fáil Cumann na nGaedheal/Fine Gael The Labour Party The farmers' parties The break-up of the Treaty party system - The roots of party and government in independent Ireland The central place of party in Irish politics Party and the physical force tradition The evolution of the Irish state Party and government in independent Ireland - Some comparative perspectives Liberal democracy The party system in comparative perspective

Boyce examines the relationship between ideas and political and social reality. A new final chapter considers the development of nationalism in both parts of Ireland, and places the phenomenon of nationalism in a contemporary and European setting

Richard English's brilliant new book, now available in paperback, is a compelling narrative history of Irish nationalism, in which events are not merely recounted but analysed. Full of rich detail, drawn from years of original research and also from the extensive specialist literature on the subject, it offers explanations of why Irish nationalists have believed and acted as they have, why their ideas and strategies have changed over time, and what effect Irish nationalism has had in shaping modern Ireland. It takes us from the Ulster Plantation to Home Rule, from the Famine of 1847 to the Hunger Strikes of the 1970s, from Parnell to Pearse, from Wolfe Tone to Gerry Adams, from the bitter struggle of the Civil War to the uneasy peace of the early twenty-first century. Is it imaginable that Ireland might – as some have suggested – be about to enter a post-nationalist period? Or will Irish nationalism remain a defining force on the island in future years? 'a courageous and successful attempt to synthesise the entire story between two covers for the neophyte and for the exhausted specialist alike' Tom Garvin, Irish Times

From the mid-1860s to 1914 the Irish problem was frequently the prime issue in British politics. Quantitatively it absorbed more time and energy than any other question. There was little about Ireland which was not aired at length in the press, in Parliament and at the dinner tables of the British political elite. Fenianism obsessed British minds at the beginning of the period while at the end it seemed all too possible that Irish home rule would spark off the largest civil disruption in the British Isles since the seventeenth century. Throughout the late Victorian and Edwardian eras Ireland never drifted far from political consciousness. The importance of the Irish question in modern British history is undeniable. It remains a staple of schools and university history syllabuses. For many William Gladstone's long career, most of which had little connection with Ireland, was bound up with his mission to pacify the Emerald Isle. Charles Stewart Parnell, the Protestant nationalist who guided an essentially Catholic movement so triumphantly, has inspired the best in poetry and the worst of Hollywood. The Irish problem, understandably, has continued to excite interest and passion beyond any other issue of the time. Its ramifications are with us even today. Failure to resolve the Irish problem by 1914 left a bitter legacy and was a major factor in giving birth to the contemporary Northern Ireland violence. That the Irish question played so considerable a part in later nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain is at initial glance very curious. Ireland was a small, relatively poor backwater on the fringe of the British Isles and western Europe. It possessed few significant resources and had little intrinsic importance. Scotland and Wales, lands of infinitely more value to Britain, attracted little concern by comparison though both had grievances and aspirations similar to those in Ireland. Moreover, neither the industrial workers of Britain's cities or the agricultural classes of the countryside were given the consideration devoted to the humblest of Ireland's Catholic peasantry. Ireland's centrality is explicable in three principle ways. First, there was a range of outstanding Irish grievances which public opinion had been educated to understand demanded attention if the Catholics of the country were to consent freely to be part of a unified kingdom. Certain issues, then, were ripe for legislation. Secondly, a movement emerged which was able to galvanise the Catholic masses. It also proved effective in keeping Ireland to the fore in British life over an extended time.