How societies use the past is one of their most revealing traits. Using this insight "Ireland's Polemical Past" examines how the inhabitants of nineteenth and twentieth-century Ireland plundered their pasts for polemical reasons. The ten essays explore how revolutionaries, politicians, churchmen, artists, tourists and builders (among others) used the Irish past in creating and justifying their own position in contemporary society. The result is a varied portrait of the problems and tensions in nineteenth and early twentieth-century society that these people tried to solve by resorting to the Irish past for inspiration and justification to make their world work. This is a book that will appeal to those who have an interest in the making of modern Ireland as well as those concerned with writing about the Irish past at any level.

The National University of Ireland has played a key role in Irish life since its foundation in 1908. This beautifully illustrated book celebrates its centenary by looking at its origins in the Royal University, and further back in the Queen's Colleges, the Catholic University and St Patrick's College, Maynooth. A distinguished group of contributors examines formative influences, especially the role of the Irish language movement and the campaign to include women; the relationship between the NUI and its Constituent Colleges (more recently Constituent Universities); the contribution of its four Chancellors that have presided over its affairs, and the evolving roles of the Senate, the Registrar, the Recognised Colleges and the graduates body, or Convocation. The challenges posed by the transformation of Irish education since 1967, and particularly by the 1997 Universities Act are analysed. The valuable NUI Archive is listed and a series of Appendices provide details of office-holders, members of Senate, and of NUI Awards and Scholarships.

The Irish school inspectorate has had a long and intimate involvement in the development of the school system at all levels, and its establishment in 1832 pre-dated the founding of inspectorates in England and Wales. The national (primary) school inspectorate, set up in 1832, has had the longest and most extensive engagement with schools; the vocational and secondary school inspectorates were established in 1900 and 1909 respectively. The three branches of the inspectorate originated and evolved in quite different ways as a result of their alliance to the characteristics of the school sector for which they had responsibility. The branches are now unified as a single inspectorate, which has been significantly restructured in recent years in line with the many reforms of the education system. This is the first published history of Ireland's school inspectorate and it provides illuminating insights into school conditions, pedagogical approaches, curricular implementation, assessment issues and the general progress of the school enterprise.