Ireland Before Patrick -- Chapter I Peig Sayers: A Modern Look at an Ancient World 9 -- Chapter II Cuchulainn, Fionn mac Cumaill, and Deirdre 13 -- Land of Saints and Scholars -- Chapter III Patrick: From Slave Boy to Patron Saint 26 -- Chapter IV Brigid: "The Mary of the Gael" 32 -- Chapter V Columcille: The Dove of the Church 35 -- Viking Invasion and the High Kings of Ireland -- Chapter VI Vikings and Brian Boru 45 -- Chapter VII High Kings and High Villains--Turlough O'Connor, Rory O'Connor, and Dermot MacMurrough 56 -- Norman Invasion to Henry VIII: 1169-1537 -- Chapter VIII "Strongbow"--Richard de Clare 68 -- Chapter IX Earls of Kildare--Gerrold Mor, Gerrold Og, and Silken Thomas 76 -- Tudor Conquest and the Fall of the Gaelic World -- Chapter X Hugh O'Neill, the Battle of Kinsale, and the Escape of the Earls 102 -- Chapter XI Grace O'Malley--Granuaile 118 -- Seventeenth Century: Destruction, Chaos, and Loss -- Chapter XII Rory O'More and Owen Roe O'Neill 133 -- Chapter XIII A Short Biography of an Odious Gatecrasher of Irish History 145 -- Chapter XIV Patrick Sarsfield, the Wild Geese, and the Penal Laws 146 -- Chapter XV Oliver Plunkett 156 -- Great Patriots -- Chapter XVI Wolfe Tone 163 -- Chapter XVII Robert Emmet 177 -- Chapter XVIII Daniel O'Connell 181 -- Ireland after the Great Hunger -- Chapter XIX Charles Stewart Parnell: The Uncrowned King of Ireland 194 -- Chapter XX Michael Davitt 209 -- Chapter XXI Douglas Hyde 214 -- A Terrible Beauty is Born: Proclaiming the Republic -- Chapter XXII Maud Gonne 225 -- Chapter XXIII Padraig Pearse 240 -- Chapter XXIV James Connolly 248 -- A Century of Irish Voices -- Chapter XXV William Butler Yeats 262 -- Chapter XXVI James Joyce 272 -- Chapter XXVII Samuel Beckett 282 -- Birth Pangs of a New Nation -- Chapter XXVIII Michael Collins 291 -- Chapter XXIX Eamon de Valera 304 -- Ireland in the Modern World -- Chapter XXX Jack Lynch 315 -- Chapter XXXI Conor Cruise O'Brien 322 -- Chapter XXXII F. H. Boland 327 -- People of Passion -- Chapter XXXIII Bernadette Devlin 331 -- Chapter XXXIV Bobby Sands 337 -- People of Peace -- Chapter XXXV Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams 347 -- A Chance for Reconciliation -- Chapter XXXVI John Hume 353 -- Chapter XXXVII David Trimble 360 -- Chapter XXXVIII Gerry Adams 364 -- Celtic Tiger and the New Ireland -- Chapter XXXIX Mary Robinson and Bertie Ahern 371 -- Chapter XL Bono 379.
