ABSTRACT
The chapter outlines the historical background to contemporary Irish politics. It focuses in particular on the emergence of the modern state, tracing the impact of British rule upon a mode of government many of whose features (including its administrative system and many of its political cultural values) were inherited or adopted by the newly independent Irish state after 1922. The pre-independence party system is analysed in depth, as is the period of 1916–23, which was marked by dramatic events such as the Easter Rising, the war of independence and the civil war. The chapter supplies a political history of the independent Irish state from 1922 to the present day and identifies the issues that dominated political debate during this period.
