In this book, Noel Dorr looks back at the period which led up to Sunningdale, at the Conference itself and its outcome, at the short life of the new political institutions and at some of the reasons why this initiative, born in hope, did not succeed. He concentrates on the policies of the Irish Government - indeed two successive Irish Governments - and how they evolved over the years 1969 to early 1974. A personal view of events, issues and ideas, as seen by one Irish official over that five-year period.