Under the editorship of R. F. Foster, a team of distinguished Irish historians has produced a challenging assessment of Ireland's history, invaluable for the student and general reader alike. Their approach stresses the ancient, rooted nature of Irish culture, but also looks beyond received ideas of Irish history to explore the patterns of fragmentation and change which have been characteristic of Ireland's past. The long-contested question of Irish identity and its relation to language is also fruitfully examined. The text of this book, originally published in The Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland, is usefully supplemented with a chronology of Irish history, maps, and suggestions for further reading.