Draws from a wide range of disciplines to bring together 36 leading scholars writing about 400 years of modern Irish history

A pioneering exploration of the phenomenon of the composite state in Eighteenth-century Europe. Employing a comparative approach, it combines the findings of new research on Ireland with broader syntheses of major composite states in Europe – those of France, Austria and Poland-Lithuania.

Published to mark the two hundreth anniversary of the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland, which took effect on 1 January 1801, this collection of essays explores the history of the independent Irish parliament which the Act of Union extinguished; a subject of interest not just to students of Irish history, but also in its European context as an unusually successful example of a provincial representative institution in a composite monarchy. Traditionally, Irish historians have been interested in the history of the Dublin parliament as an arena for high-political conflict or as a forum for the development and expression of Anglo-Irish patriot ideology. By contrast, this volume looks at parliament as an institution, the role of the house of commons in the collection an expenditure of public money, and the recording of proceedings and debates.