The thousand years explored in this book witnessed developments in the history of Ireland that resonate to this day. Interspersing narrative with detailed analysis of key themes, the first volume in The Cambridge History of Ireland presents the latest thinking on key aspects of the medieval Irish experience. The contributors are leading experts in their fields, and present their original interpretations in a fresh and accessible manner. New perspectives are offered on the politics, artistic culture, religious beliefs and practices, social organisation and economic activity that prevailed on the island in these centuries. At each turn the question is asked: to what extent were these developments unique to Ireland? The openness of Ireland to outside influences, and its capacity to influence the world beyond its shores, are recurring themes. Underpinning the book is a comparative, outward-looking approach that sees Ireland as an integral but exceptional component of medieval Christian Europe.

Ireland has been shaped by centuries of emigration as millions escaped poverty, famine, religious persecution, and war. But what happens when we reconsider this well-worn history by exploring the ways Ireland has also been shaped by immigration? From slave markets in Viking Dublin to social media use by modern asylum seekers, Migration and the Making of Ireland identifies the political, religious, and cultural factors that have influenced immigration to Ireland over the span of four centuries. A senior scholar of migration and social policy, Bryan Fanning offers a rich understanding of the lived experiences of immigrants. Using firsthand accounts of those who navigate citizenship entitlements, gender rights, and religious and cultural differences in Ireland, Fanning reveals a key yet understudied aspect of Irish history. Engaging and eloquent, Migration and the Making of Ireland provides long overdue consideration to those who made new lives in Ireland even as they made Ireland new.

This engaging and provocative work consists of 29 chapters and discusses over 50 books that have been instrumental in the development of Irish social and political thought since the early seventeenth century. Steering clear of traditionally canonical Irish literature, Bryan Fanning and Tom Garvin debate the significance of their chosen texts and explore the impact, reception, controversy, debates and arguments that followed publication. Fanning and Garvin present these seminal books in an impelling dialogue with one another, highlighting the manner in which individual writers informed each other s opinions at the same time as they were being amassed within the public consciousness. From Jonathan Swift s savage indignation to Flann O'Brien s disintegrative satire, this book provides a fascinating discussion of how key Irish writers affected the life of their country by upholding or tearing down those matters held close to the heart, identity and habits of the Irish nation.