The most historical, comical, entertaining, shocking, scandalous, bigoted, idealistic, memorable and misquoted, the most awful and the most brilliant quotations of the most exciting century in Irish history.

Arranged in chronological order, these thousands of quotations give an oral history of Ireland over the past 100 years. It is the essential and colourful guide to 20th century Ireland, North and South, with a cast of characters ranging from politicians and prelates to poets and people simply caught up in the turbulence of the times. Here are the key phrases used by those who fought and campaigned to shape Ireland to their viewpoint, Orange and Green, unionist and republican, left and right, feminist and fundamentalist, clerical and secular.