'A marvel of compression and balance.' Brian Farrell '...reflects wide reading and reflection...[Townsend's] treatment is the ideal starting point.' English Historical Review '...combines impressive, and unobtrusive, scholarship with refreshing insight and more than fulfills its stated purpose of making the work of the latest generation of historians more widely accessible.' Irish Review 'A fascinating in-depth look at the country that went from colony in 1900 to economic dynamo by the advent of the 21st century...Coogan has done a masterful job of taking a very complicated history and making it lively reading.' Publisher's Weekly