A balanced account of the 1916 Easter Rising and its place in Irish and British history. Professor Ward pays particular attention to three kinds of Catholic nationalism--constitutional, revolutionary, and romantic--to their counterpart, Protestant Unionism; to the defects of Home Rule as a solution to the Irish problem; and to the role of Irish-Americans in the struggle for Irish independence.
Alan J. Ward is the Class of 1935 Professor of Government at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He is a past president of the American Conference for Irish Studies and senior fellow in the Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University, Belfast. His books on Irish history and government include Ireland and Anglo-American Relations, 1899-1921 (1969) and The Irish Constitutional Tradition: Responsible Government and Modern Ireland, 1782-1992 (1994).