After the Irish War of Independence and Civil War, the journal Studies hosted the mainstream social, economic, constitutional and political debates that shaped the new state. "An Irish Century: Studies 1912-2012" marks its centenary as one of Ireland's most influential periodicals. The collection focuses on nine decades of Irish independence and the crucial decade beforehand that witnessed seismic change, addressing the key events, crises and challenges that have shaped Irish society - the 1916 Rising, the First World War, sectarian conflict, child abuse and immigration. There are some landmark pieces by AE, John Maynard Keynes, Donal Barrington, Patrick Lynch, Sean O'Faolain and Augustine Martin. Included are writings by and about some of the key figures who have fashioned the political, cultural and economic life of modern Ireland such as John Redmond, Patrick Pearse, Sean Lemass, T.K. Whitaker, John McGahern and Ian Paisley, as well as analyses of social change by Tom Garvin, Tony Fahey, Mary Kenny, Finola Kennedy and Dermot Keogh.
Drawing from some 400 issues containing more than 3,000 essays, the one per cent solution distilled here was selected to exemplify and reflect a century of debate and analysis of Irish social and political change.