Ireland in an Imperial World interrogates the myriad ways through which Irish men and women experienced, participated in, and challenged empires in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Most importantly, they were integral players simultaneously managing and undermining the British Empire, and through their diasporic communities, they built sophisticated arguments that aided challenges to other imperial projects. In emphasizing the interconnections between Ireland and the wider British and Irish worlds, this book argues that a greater appreciation of empire is essential for enriching our understanding of the development of Irish society at home. Moreover, these thirteen essays argue plainly that Ireland was on the cutting edge of broader global developments, both in configuring and dismantling Europe’s overseas empires.

In a 70-year period, the dukes of Leinster fell from being Ireland's premier aristocratic family, close friends of the British monarchy, secure within the world's most powerful empire, to relative obscurity in an independent Irish Free State that did not recognize titles. The narrative of decline and fall unfolds against such historical watersheds as the Land War of the 1880s and the simultaneous rise of the home rule movement; the breakup of Irish landed estates after 1903; the Great War of 1914-18; the revolutionary turmoil of 1916-23; and the 1920s global economic depression.

London-born and reared, Art O'Brien's journey from wealthy electrical engineer to leader of Irish militant nationalism in London was, by any measure, quite extraordinary. This book uses the life of O'Brien (1872-1949) as a central axis on which to construct an analysis of Irish nationalism in London from 1900 to 1925. O'Brien was a member of the Gaelic League, Sinn Féin, the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and the Irish Self-Determination League of Great Britain. He also established a prisoner relief organization and had significant involvement in gun-running for the 1916 rising and the War of Independence. Appointed London envoy of Dáil Éireann in 1919, he was a close confidant of Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith, and Éamon de Valera, and was a mediator in various peace initiatives between the British and Sinn Féin during 1920 and 1921. Yet, despite his extensive contribution to the Irish revolution, little is known of O'Brien's activities. Based on rigorous research in British and Irish archives, this book recounts the vital contribution O'Brien made to the prosecution of the Irish revolution. It also recounts the hitherto little-known story of Irish cultural, political, and militant nationalism in London between 1900 and 1925.

'She said she was in the family way' examines the subject of pregnancy and infancy in Ireland from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. It draws on exciting and innovative research by early-career and established academics, and considers topics that have been largely ignored by historians in Ireland. The book will make an important contribution to Irish women's history, family history, childhood history, social history, crime history and medical history, and will provide a reference point for academics interested in themes of sexuality, childbirth, infanthood and parenthood.

This work is a sequel to The Irish Victorian City. As a collection of national and regional studies, it reflected the consensus view of the subject by describing both the degree of the demoralization of the Irish immigrants into Britain for the early and mid-Victorian period, when they figured so largely in the official parliamentary and social reportage of the day; and then, in spite of every obvious difficulty posed by poverty, crime, disease, and prejudice, the positive aspect of the Irish Catholic achievement in the creation of enduring religious and political communities towards the end of the nineteenth century.