County Wicklow’s landscape is dotted with pre-Christian sites – Baltinglass is known as the ‘Hillfort Capital of Ireland’. Saint Patrick landed in Wicklow in 432 AD and the county also boasts ecclesiastical sites, the most impressive being Glendalough. Following the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169–70, Normans occupied the lowlands, but native Irish inhabited the uplands, leading to conflict throughout the Middle Ages. Wicklow became the last county to be shired in 1606.

Wicklow witnessed more violence through the seventeenth century, and it was only after 1700 that the elite felt safe enough to build great houses such as Powerscourt and Russborough. Wicklow was in turmoil during the 1798 rebellion. Economic recovery was halted by the tragedy of Famine. Later in the nineteenth century, the Parnells led the Home Rule movement, the Land League and the Ladies’ Land League. The twentieth century saw war, revolution and hardship before better times arrived after 1960.

Meticulously researched, this clear, user-friendly book is an invaluable resource which will appeal to everyone interested in the history of County Wicklow.

Dr CHRIS LAWLOR is a former head of the History Department in Méanscoil Iognáid Rís, Naas, and has published eleven history books and many historical articles, essays and chapters in journals, magazines and anthologies. Chris won the Lord Walter Fitzgerald Prize for Original Historical Research in 2003 and the Irish Chiefs’ Prize for History in 2013. He is the treasurer of the West Wicklow Historical Society and co-editor of the society’s biennial journal. He is also a member of the Dunlavin Writers’ Group and continues to write, publish and lecture during his retirement. He lives in Dunlavin.