His work examines the underlying political dynamic of partition, the fall of Redmondism and the Home Rule project, the imperial ambitions and fears of English Tories, the tensions inside Fenianism, the IRB’s use of violence to complement the Sinn Féin victory in the 1918 election, and the stalemate achieved in the War of Independence.
He considers what was and what was not achievable in the Treaty negotiations, from Irish and British perspectives, and why ideological rigidity, personal ambition, jealousy and distrust poisoned the minds of those who would turn to violence and ultimately imperil the great prize of establishing an independent Irish state – a project that seemed all but impossible ten years previously.
