THE IRISH CENTURY brings to life a hundred years of Irish history with immediacy and clarity: the main protagonists from the mid 1850s (the earliest extant photographs) to 1910 were the Unionists comprising the old Protestant ascendancy, (the Anglo-Irish gentry) and the Northerners (the Protestants of all social classes in the rapidly industrializing North-East), and secondly, the Nationalists, both physical force men and Constitutionalists. Each grouping has formed and reformed, declined in influence or extended its constituency over the subsequent century to give an enduring shape to Irish politics. Major personalities, events, crises and triumphs are documented in this powerful book not just in the field of politics but also in art and culture and sport and the traditions of the countryside.