Founded upon the partition of Ireland in 1920, Northern Ireland experienced fifty years of nervous peace under the rule of a devolved government in Belfast. This government, representative only of the majority Protestant unionist community, held firm until the emergence of the Nationalist Civil Rights Movement in the late 1960s, following which the province soon subsided into the civil unrest widely known as 'the Troubles'. The great value of this book is that it provides an overview of events since the outbreak of the Troubles up to and including the present uncertain peace process. It brings a contemporary perspective to historical events, taking account of the scholarship which has developed in Northen Ireland studies over the last twenty years. Other books by Thomas Hennessey The Northern Ireland Peace Process.