Royal Irish Academy

The prospect of Irish unification is now stronger than at any point since partition in 1921. Voters on both sides of the Irish border may soon have to confront for themselves what the answer to a referendum question would mean - for themselves, for their neighbours, and for their society.Journalists Fintan O''Toole and Sam McBride examine the strongest arguments for and against a united Ireland. What do the words ''united Ireland'' even mean? Would it be better for Northern Ireland? Would it improve lives in the Republic of Ireland? And could it be brought about without bloodshe? ’Toole and McBride each argue the case for and against unity, questioning received wisdom and bringing fresh thinking to one of Ireland’s most intractable questions.

This new historical atlas explores the town of Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal from its origins to the present day. It traces the town’s development from a fording point and O’Donnell stronghold, through its nineteenth-century heyday as a thriving port and market town with international trading connections, into the twenty-first century. The volume includes large-format reproductions of historic maps, views and photographs from the late sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, as well as specially created thematic maps. A gazetteer of over 680 sites and an accompanying essay provide a detailed topographical history of the town up to c. 1900.The Irish Historic Towns Atlas is a long-term research programme of the Royal Irish Academy. Since publication began in 1986, thirty-two atlases of Irish towns and cities, north and south, have been published. The atlases are produced following basic principles, making it possible to compare and contrast places with one another. Ballyshannon now joins the north-western town of Sligo and city of Derry, as well as over 600 European towns and cities produced as part of a wider International scheme. See www.ihta.ie for more information.Irish Historic Towns Atlas, no. 32, Ballyshannon/Béal Átha Seanaidh, by Angela Byrne is published by the Royal Irish Academy and has been supported by Donegal County Council and The Heritage Council as part of the implementation of the County Donegal Heritage Plan. Maps produced in association with Tailte Éireann.

Drawing on records produced by the Presbyterian church courts and a combination of personal papers, diaries and family correspondence, Leanne Calvert traces the experiences of Presbyterian women and men in eighteenth-century Ulster from the cradle to the grave.  She casts light on their everyday experiences, bringing to life for the first time for a general audience stories of lovelorn courting couples, runaway apprentices, warring husbands and wives, paternity disputes, troublesome youths and grieving spouses.