Senia Paseta - Modern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction

Modern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction

VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide.

The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology.

Very Short Introductions available now:

ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas

THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair

ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia

ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn

ARCHITECTURE Andrew Ballantyne

ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes

ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland

AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick

BARTHES Jonathan Culler

THE BIBLE John Riches

BUDDHA Michael Carrithers

BUDDHISM Damien Keown

CHOICE THEORY Michael Allingham

CLASSICS Mary Beard and John Henderson

CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard

THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon

CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY Simon Critchley

COSMOLOGY Peter Coles

CRYPTOGRAPHY Fred Piper and Sean Murphy

DARWIN Jonathan Howard

DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick

DESCARTES Tom Sorell

DRUGS Leslie Iversen

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Paul Langford

EMOTION Dylan Evans

EMPIRE Stephen Howe

ETHICS Simon Blackburn

THE EUROPEAN UNION John Pinder

FASCISM Kevin Passmore

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION William Doyle

FREUD Anthony Storr

GALILEO Stillman Drake

GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh

GLOBALIZATION Manfred B. Steger

HEGEL Peter Singer

HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood

HINDUISM Kim Knott

HISTORY John H. Arnold

HOBBES Richard Tuck

HUME A. J. Ayer

INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Sue Hamilton

INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary

ISLAM Malise Ruthven

JUDAISM Norman Solomon

JUNG Anthony Stevens

KANT Roger Scruton

KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner

THE KORAN Michael Cook

LITERARY THEORY Jonathan Culler

LOCKE John Dunn

LOGIC Graham Priest

MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner

MARX Peter Singer

MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers

MEDIEVAL BRITAIN John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths

MODERN IRELAND Senia Paeta

MUSIC Nicholas Cook

NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner

NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and H. C. G. Matthew

NORTHERN IRELAND Marc Mulholland

PAUL E. P. Sanders

PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Samir Okasha

PLATO Julia Annas

POLITICS Kenneth Minogue

POSTMODERNISM Christopher Butler

POSTSTRUCTURALISM Catherine Belsey

PSYCHOLOGY Gillian Butler and Freda McManus

QUANTUM THEORY John Polkinghorne

ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway

ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler

RUSSELL A. C. Grayling

RUSSIAN LITERATURE Catriona Kelly

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION S. A. Smith

SCHOPENHAUER Christopher Janaway

SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY John Monaghan and Peter Just

SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce

SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor

SPINOZA Roger Scruton

STUART BRITAIN John Morrill

TERRORISM Charles Townshend

THEOLOGY David F. Ford

THE TUDORS John Guy

TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan

WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling

WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman

Available soon:

AFRICAN HISTORY John Parker and Richard Rathbone

ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw

ART HISTORY Dana Arnold

THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin

ATHEISM Julian Baggini

THE BRAIN Michael OShea

BRITISH POLITICS Anthony Wright

BUDDHIST ETHICS Damien Keown

CAPITALISM James Fulcher

THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe

CHAOS Leonard Smith

CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson

CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead

CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy

CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE Robert Tavernor

CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko

CONTEMPORARY ART Julian Stallabrass

THE CRUSADES Christopher Tyerman

DADA AND SURREALISM David Hopkins

DERRIDA Simon Glendinning

DESIGN John Heskett

DINOSAURS David Norman

DREAMING J. Allan Hobson

THE EARTH Martin Redfern

ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta

EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY Geraldine Pinch

THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball

THE END OF THE WORLD Bill McGuire

EVOLUTION Brian and Deborah Charlesworth

EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn

THE FIRST WORLD WAR Michael Howard

FREE WILL Thomas Pink

FUNDAMENTALISM Malise Ruthven

HABERMAS Gordon Finlayson

HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson

HIROSHIMA B. R. Tomlinson

HUMAN EVOLUTION Bernard Wood

IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Paul Wilkinson

JAZZ Brian Morton

LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews

MANDELA Tom Lodge

MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope

THE MIND Martin Davies

MOLECULES Philip Ball

MYTH Robert Segal

NATIONALISM Steven Grosby

PERCEPTION Richard Gregory

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot

PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards

POSTCOLONIALISM Robert Young

PREHISTORY Chris Gosden

THE PRESOCRATICS Catherine Osborne

THE RAJ Denis Judd

THE RENAISSANCE Jerry Brotton

RENAISSANCE ART Geraldine Johnson

SARTRE Christina Howells

SCHIZOPHRENIA Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone

THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR Helen Graham

TRAGEDY Adrian Poole

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Martin Conway

For more information visit our web site
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A Very Short Introduction

Senia Paeta

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Senia Paeta 2003

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First published as a Very Short Introduction 2003

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ISBN 0192801678

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For Simon

A book of this size cannot hope to masquerade as total history, and readers must understand that the choice of subject matter will necessarily reveal the biases and interests of the writer. This book is not aimed at the initiated, and I hope it will be accessible to people with little or no knowledge of modern Irish history. Each chapter deals with a particular period of modern Irish history, though themes and developments cross the years and the decades. Because of the brevity of this book, selecting a hierarchy of events and individuals for inclusion was a difficult task. The focus is broadly political, and I am sorry not to have been able to include more discussion of the lived realities of Irish and Northern Irish life. I hope that this very brief sketch will whet appetites for further reading.