Ireland, 1919: When Sinn Féin proclaims Dáil Éireann the parliament of the independent Irish republic, London declares the new assembly to be illegal, and a vicious guerrilla war breaks out between republican and crown forces. Michael Collins, intelligence chief of the Irish Republican Army, creates an elite squad whose role is to assassinate British agents and undercover police. The so-called 'Twelve Apostles' will create violent mayhem, culminating in the events of 'Bloody Sunday' in Nov...

During a Biblical seven years in the middle of the nineteenth century, Ireland experienced the worst disaster a nation could suffer. Fully a quarter of its citizens either perished from starvation or emigrated, with so many dying en route that it was said, "you can walk dry shod to America on their bodies." In this grand, sweeping narrative, Ireland''s best-known historian, Tim Pat Coogan, gives a fresh and comprehensive account of one of the darkest chapters in world history, arguing that...

The Easter Rising began at 12 noon on 24 April, 1916 and lasted for six short but bloody days, resulting in the deaths of innocent civilians, the destruction of many parts of Dublin and the true beginning of Irish independence.The 1916 Rising was born out of the Conservative and Unionist parties' illegal defiance of the democratically expressed wish of the Irish electorate for Home Rule; and of confusion, mishap and disorganisation, compounded by a split within the Volunteer leader...

From Seán Lemass to mass unemployment: Ireland changed between 1966 and 1987 and, Tim Pat Coogan argues in Disillusioned Decades, not for the betterThe year 1966 was one in which to take stock: fifty years since the Rising, what had the Republic achieved? In Disillusioned Decades, Ireland's most celebrated and controversial historian Tim Pat Coogan looks at a country in bloom – Seán Lemass was at the end of a successful term as Taoiseach, the economy appeared stable and the newly founded R...

Ireland's bestselling popular historian tells the story of contemporary Ireland - controversial, authoritative and highly readable. Tim Pat Coogan's biographies of Michael Collins and DeValera and his studies of the IRA, the Troubles and the Irish Diaspora have transformed our understanding of contemporary Ireland, and all have been massive bestsellers. Now he has produced a major history of Ireland in the twentieth century. Covering both South and North and dealing with cultural and socia...

There's before 1916 and then there's after. Between them lies the Easter Rising, when Irish republicans took up arms against British rule and changed the course of their country's history forever. For though the resistance failed, it failed gloriously; the rebels were no longer a group of cranks and troublemakers in the public eye, but martyrs and national heroes, their example set the way for others and their mission lived on through the century to come.But what s...

The Troubles refers to a violent thirty-year conflict, at the heart of which lay the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. Over 3,000 people were killed on all sides, and many more damaged by a legacy that continued long past 1998.After looking at the roots of Catholic discrimination of the Northern Irish state, Coogan points to Orange prejudice in housing, education and jobs and the lack of a Catholic outlet for peaceful protest. He argues that the war in the North started as...

When President of the Irish Republic Michael Collins signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, he remarked to Lord Birkenhead, 'I may have signed my actual death warrant.'In August 1922 during the Irish Civil War, that prophecy came true – Collins was shot and killed by a fellow Irishman in a shocking political assassination.So ended the life of the greatest of all Irish nationalists, but his visions and legacy lived on.This authorative and comprehensive biogr...

From the personal to the political, this is the much-awaited memoir from Tim Pat Coogan.Ireland's best-known journalist, broadcaster, historian and bestselling biographer Tim Pat Coogan has not only reported the news - he's been the news. Through the Irish Press, where he served as editor for twenty years, he is renowned for bringing social and political change to Ireland. He went on to play a vital role in bringing the IRA/Sinn Fein to the peace talks table, and h...

Founded in 1884 to promote Irish identity and revive the traditional sports of hurling, football and handball, the GAA enjoyed an intimate relationship with the nationalist movement from the turn of the twentieth century onwards. In 1914, the Irish Volunteers drilled with hurley sticks in the absence of rifles; after the 1916 Rising many of those interned by the British were GAA members; and on 21 November 1920, a Gaelic football match between Dublin and Tipperary at Croke Park was interru...

The population of Ireland is five million, but 70 million people worldwide call themselves Irish. Here, Tim Pat Coogan travels around the globe to tell their story.Irish emigration first began in the 12th century when the Normans invaded Ireland. Cromwell's terrorist campaign in the 17th century drove many Irish to France and Spain, while Cromwell deported many more to the West Indies and Virginia. Millions left due to the famine and its aftermath between 1845 and 1961. Where did t...

Eamon de Valera – 'The Long Fellow' – remains a towering presence whose shadow still falls over Irish life. The history of Ireland for much of the twentieth century is the history of de Valera.From the 1916 Rising, the troubled Treaty negotiations and the Civil War, right through to his retirement after a longer period in power than any other 20th-century leader, Eamon de Valera has both defined and divided Ireland. He was directly responsible for the Irish Constitution, Fianna Fai...