This text provides an assessment of the First World War in Ireland and its consequences - a way to understanding the complexities of the Irish nation at the end of the 20th-century. Thomas Hennessey explores how the War transformed the nature of the Irish and Ulster questions from devolved self-government within the UK to a free Irish republic outside the British Empire, considering such influential figures as de Valera and Michael Collins, and issues such as conscription. He examines both this process of re-evaluation, and the question of the consequences for Northern Ireland today.