The Making of Ireland (Third Edition) textbook for Leaving Cert History.

The Making of Ireland is written in a clear factual style with up-to-date historical commentary.

This beautifully illustrated textbook features a wide variety of relevant historical imagery and presents key statistics in clear, useful graphs and charts.

The Making of Ireland provides in-depth coverage of and case studies from the four most popular Later Modern Ireland topics. Students must study two of these:

• Topic 2: Movements for Political and Social Reform, 1870–1914 (prescribed topic for 2026/2027)
• Topic 3: The Pursuit of Sovereignty and the Impact of Partition, 1912–1949
• Topic 5: Politics and Society in Northern Ireland, 1949–1993
• Topic 6: Government, Economy and Society in the Republic of Ireland, 1949–1989

Key features of The Making of Ireland:

• Learning intentions stated at the beginning of each chapter
• Clearly signposted Key Concepts
• Exam-focused profiles of Key Personalities
• Mini Bios of key figures as springboards for further research
• Chapter Recaps
• End-of-chapter revision-style questions
• Past exam questions placed beside relevant material
• End-of-chapter sample exam paper questions for Ordinary Level and Higher Level
• Topic 2 includes a wide variety of relevant documents for the documents-based question. Practice questions are organised under exam-relevant headings such as Comprehension, Comparison, Criticism and Contextualisation.
• Detailed exam section offers:
  • Advice for both Higher and Ordinary Level students
  • Explanation of the marking scheme
  • Research Study Report guidelines
  • Clear guidance on answering the documents-based questions

– A full sample essay with commentary