Author Description

This is the first comprehensive history of Ireland, North and South, which traces the developments from the Second World War to the Belfast Agreement, and the creation of a new inclusive government in Northern Ireland. It aims to avoid what is too often a partitional approach to the history of Ireland, which treats the North and South in isolation from one another. Making extensive use of archival material from Belfast, Dublin, and London, Ireland Since 1939 provides new perspectives on a range of important episodes - from Irish neutrality to the 1970 Arms Crisis, and from Lord Brookeborough's failed attempt to modernize the Northern Ireland state to the disastrous events of Bloody Sunday in Derry. Developments in Ireland are placed in an international context - from the period when the World War rescued Ulster Unionism from economic decline and social conflict to explaining how the end of the Cold War contributed to the IRA's 1994 ceasefire. The importance of economic developments on the political situation in both states is also emphasized, and Patterson argues that the Celtic Tiger was an important factor in the recent talks between North and South.