This volume sets out to examine the history of Ireland in the years following the Dail's ratification of independence in 1922. It focuses themes such as the considerations of the decline of Redmondite nationalism, the role of Unionism in the Free State, and party structures and organization.

This volume sets out to examine the history of Ireland in the years following the Dail's ratification of independence from Britain in 1922. The different authors in the collection, all experts on different aspects of Irish history from the first half of the twentieth century, focus on a wide range of different themes. Considerations of the decline of Redmondite nationalism, the role of Unionism in the Free State, Party structures and organization, the development of different forms of identity, the nature of economics and the place of the newly independent Ireland within the British Empire are all included. All chapters are either the result of new archival research or else offer a sustained historiographical critique of current thinking.

Glossary - Notes on the Contributors - Introduction
M.Cronin &
J.Regan - Ireland's Last Home Rule Generation: The Decline of Constitutional Nationalism in Ireland, 1916-30
S.Paseta - The Politics of Utopia: Party Politics, Executive Autonomy and the New Administration
J.Regan - The Enigma of Fianna Fail: Party Strategy, Social Classes and the Politics of Hegemony
R.Dunphy - Socialist Republicanism in Independent Ireland, 1922-49
R.English - The Unpopular Front: Catholic Revival and Irish Cultural Identity, 1932-48
S.Riordan - Social Catholicism and the Social Question in Post-independence Ireland: The Challenge to the Fiscal System
F.O.Driscoll - Golden Dreams, Harsh Realities: Economics and Informal Empire in the Irish Free State
M.Cronin - New Ireland, Old Empire and the Outside World, 1922-49: The Strange Evolution of a 'Dictionary Republic'
D.Lowry - Trinity College Dublin and the New Political Order
P.Dempsey - Index