Sparky Booker is a Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast and specialises in medieval Irish social, cultural and legal history. Her publications have examined the interactions between the English of Ireland and the Irish in the later Middle Ages, and explored intermarriage, sumptuary law, ecclesiastical patronage and the Irish in urban society. Recent work examines female litigants in medieval Ireland, and analyses litigant strategies and the influence of wealth, status, ethnicity and gender on women's legal activities. Booker is keenly interested in public history and, as a member of the Friends of Medieval Dublin, was co-founder and co-editor of the Tales of Medieval Dublin lecture series and accompanying book.

• Introduction: cultural exchange and identity in late medieval Ireland; 1. Defining the region: the four obedient shires; 2. Migration, assimilation, and status: the Irish of the four shires; 3. Mediation and cooperation: the 'two nations' in the church; 4. Interethnic family ties: intermarriage and fosterage; 5. Irish customs in the four shires; 6. The Irish language and the English community; Conclusions: identity and the limits of assimilation.

'… I would recommend this book. It is engaging, informative, and helps to unravel and explain some of the more complex relationships between the English and the Irish in the four counties at the heart of the English colony in later medieval Ireland. It makes a significant contribution to the scholarship, and encourages us to rethink our assumptions about ethnicity in the Middle Ages.' Michael Potterton, American Historical Review