This timely introduction presents a clear, balanced account of the rapid and complex events from 1880 leading up to the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922.

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Rosamond Stephen (1868-1951) was an Englishwoman who spent most of her life unsuccessfully trying to reconcile Protestants and Catholics in Ireland. The daughter of a theist judge, and niece of Sir Leslie Stephen editor of the -Dictionary of National Biography-, she was received into the Church of Ireland in 1896 and worked as a lay missionary in working-class Belfast. Her attempts to meet, assist and talk politics with Belfast Catholics aroused suspicion in both communities, and her ecumenical quest ended in disillusionment. This selection from her wartime letters to her sisters records her...