"The 1916 Easter Rising and its aftermath changed Ireland for ever. The British government's execution of 14 republican rebels transformed a group hitherto perceived as cranks and troublemakers into national heroes. Those who avoided the British firing squads of May 1916 went on to plan a new - and ultimately successful - struggle for Ireland's independence, shaping their country's destiny for the century to come. But what sort of country did they create? And to what extent does post-1916 Ireland measure up to the hopes and aspirations of 'MacDonagh and MacBride / And Connolly and Pearse'? Best-selling historian Tim Pat Coogan offers a strongly personal perspective on the Irish century that followed the Rising - charting a flawed history that is marked as much by complacency, corruption and institutional and clerical abuse, as it is by the sacrifices and nation-building achievements of the Republic's founding fathers"-- "There's before 1916 and then there's after. Between them lies the Easter Rising, when Irish republicans took up arms against British rule and changed the course of their country's history forever. For though the resistance failed, it failed gloriously; the rebels were no longer a group of cranks and troublemakers in the public eye, but martyrs and national heroes, their example set the way for others and their mission lived on through the century to come. But what sort of country did the Rising create? And how does post-1916 Ireland compare with the aspirations of the rebellions leaders, the hopes of Thomas MacDonagh and John MacBride, of James Connolly and Pádraig Pearse? One hundred years later, Tim Pat Coogan offers a personal perspective on the Irish experience that followed the Rising. He charts a flawed history that is marked as much by complacency, corruption, and institutional abuse as it is by the building of a nation and the sacrifices of the Republic's founding fathers." -- Publisher's description