December 2003

For over twenty years, the previous edition of this book has been the standard reference book on modern Irish history. This new edition has been completely re-written and revised and remains the only such work completely devoted to the modern period and is destined to become the standard reference book for the next twenty years.

Every article from the first edition has been revisited and revised. New articles have been added, including all the material pertaining to the last two decades. Peripheral articles have been dropped or consolidated, although the authors have been careful not to lose those quirky, offbeat entries that were such a feature of the first edition. As before, the book comprises about two thousand headwords on subjects as diverse as emigration, governments of Ireland, home rule, loyalism, agrarian violence, and secret societies, plus hundreds of concise and informative biographical articles.