The Partition of Ireland
1918–1925

A holistic, all-Ireland history of the causes, course, and consequences of the partition of Ireland between 1918 and 1925.

Robert Lynch (Author)

9780521189583, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 11 April 2019

258 pages, 1 map
22.7 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.38 kg

'The Partition of Ireland is now a critical must-read work on the Irish revolution and goes a long way toward its goal of restoring partition to the center of modern Irish history.' Jason Knirck, H-Albion

Partition represents the most fundamental revolution in modern Irish history. By 1925 the country had been divided into two states embodying rival religious and political identities, an outcome unthinkable only a decade before. While often analysed through the lens of elite high politics, partition was by definition a mass participation event, where decision making was shaped by elections, propaganda and savage acts of violence in defence of or in opposition to the new settlement. By examining the complex interaction of nationalism, religion and politics, Robert Lynch seeks to understand how partition was constructed and imagined by Irish people themselves, arguing for a relocation of partition at the centre of historical understandings of events in Ireland which spanned the Great War. Lynch highlights the deep confusion and expediency which lay behind the partition plan, and how it failed to provide answers to the complex and enduring problems of Irish identity.

Introduction: 'the tragedy of two lunatics'
Part I. The Origins of Partition: 1. Where is Ireland? 2. Half a revolution
3. Answering the question
Part II. The Process of Partition: 4. The death of Ireland
5. Unravelling Ireland
6. Ireland's other civil wars. Part III. The Legacies of Partition: 7. Moving minorities
8. Holding the line
9. Brave new worlds.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], British & Irish history [HBJD1]