Desmond Keenan 
The Shorter History of Ireland 
Warts and All

This book is a shorter companion book to The Real History of Ireland: Warts and All. It deals systematically with the social and economic aspects of Ireland from the earliest days until 1921. Many books with regard to the history of Ireland suffer to a greater or lesser degree of political or ideological distortion. It was always the authors aim to get at the actual facts of Irish history and to paint a picture with warts and all. Events are placed in their historical context and not in the context of later political propaganda.

About the author

The author was born in Northern Ireland, studied economics and sociology at The Queens University of Belfast in Northern Ireland, and proceeded to research a doctoral thesis on a sociological study of the Catholic Church in Ireland in the early nineteenth century. After completing his doctorate, he settled in London (UK) close to the great British Newspaper Library, an offshoot of the British Library, where he continued his research. In the course of his research recognised the many distortions that had been introduced into the writing of Irish history for political reasons. It was his aim, in his various books, to achieve a neutral perspective within frameworks derived from other disciplines such as archaeology, sociology, and economics.