The history of Ireland is both complex and connected to the wider world: it was the first place in the British Isles to be settled by Christian monks, and has suffered internal strife, Viking invasion, Norman colonization, mass migration to the New World, civil war and eventually independence in the early 20th century. Today, Ireland is a dynamic country with a blossoming economy and culture. Arranged chronologically from ancient times to the 21st century, History of Ireland provides a pictorial exploration of a land that is well-known but often little understood. Discover the remains of the countrys many Iron Age hill forts, such as the atmospheric stone fort at Grianán Aileach; explore the first Christian colonies in the monastic settlement at Glendalough in County Wicklow; read of the legend of St Patrick, and stood atop a hillside and banished snakes from Ireland prompting all serpents to slither away into the sea; discover the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the Celtic Gospel written in the 9th century; learn about the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century, where English and Scottish settlers established Protestant communities, causing lasting communal strife; understand the Easter Rising and the traumatic war for independence, which led to Irelands current political shape; and experience modern Ireland, a place of prosperity centered on the thriving city of Dublin. 180 photographs offering a pictorial history of the emerald isle Expert text provides a compact history of Ireland Will interest all with Irish ancestry or with an interest in the island