Professor Tom Garvin's classic work studies the growth of nationalism in Ireland from the middle of the eighteenth century to modern times.

It traces the continuity of tradition from earlier organisations, such as the United Irishmen and the agrarian Ribbonmen of the eighteenth century, through the followers of Daniel O'Connell, the Fenians and the Land League in the nineteenth century to the Irish political parties of today, including Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, Labour Party and Fine Gael.

The dual nature of Irish nationalism is shown in sharp focus. Despite the secular and liberal leanings of many Irish leaders and theoreticians, their followers were frequently sectarian and conservative in social outlook. This book demonstrates how this dual legacy has influenced the politics of modern Ireland.

The Evolution of Irish Nationalist Politics: Table of Contents

- Irish parties and Irish politics

The Irish republic: post-colonial politics in a western European state

Political culture and political organisation

Geography, economics and method

- The origins of Irish popular politics

Roots of Irish popular nationalism

The beginnings of urban radical political organisation, 1750–1800

Agrarianism, religion and revolution, 1760–1800

- The development of nationalist popular politics, 1800–48

Secret societies before the Famine: the rise of Ribbonism

Political mobilisation in pre-Famine nationalist Ireland

- Secret societies and party politics after the Famine

The social background

Electoral politics after the Famine

The recrudescence of republicanism: Fenianism and the Agrarians

The IRB and Irish politics after the Land War

- Agrarianism, nationalism and party politics, 1874–95

Political mobilisation and the agrarian campaign

The development of the Irish National League

The Parnell split: the collapse of the Irish National League

- The reconstruction of nationalist politics, 1891–1910

The rebuilding of the parliamentary party

The rise of the Hibernians

- The new nationalism and military conspiracy, 1900–16

The development of cultural nationalism and the origins of Sinn Féin

Fenians, Volunteers and insurrection

- Elections, revolution and civil war, 1916–23

The rise of Sinn Féin

The electoral landslide of December 1918

The Republic of Ireland, 1919–23

- The origins of the party system in independent Ireland

The ancestry of the Irish party system

The legitimation of the state and the building of political parties

- An analysis of electoral politics, 1923–48

Parties and elections in the Irish Free State

Turnout, 1922–44

Sinn Féin III/Fianna Fáil

Cumann na nGaedheal/Fine Gael

The Labour Party

The farmers' parties

The break-up of the Treaty party system

- The roots of party and government in independent Ireland

The central place of party in Irish politics

Party and the physical force tradition

The evolution of the Irish state

Party and government in independent Ireland

- Some comparative perspectives

Liberal democracy

The party system in comparative perspective