James Hawes: Shortest History Of Ireland [2026] hardback

James Hawes’s The Shortest History of Ireland is based at every step on the latest scholarship, but it’s all brought together, for once, as a fluent story, as captivating as a novel, galloping from the Ice Age to the present, using language, graphics and images accessible to all. It will change the way people see the Irish past, flipping usual practice on its head and placing Ireland at the centre not just of Irish but British and at times even European history. Hawes concludes by arguing that if Ireland can now sidestep the last, toxic wreckage of the British Empire, its eventful past will flow into a bright future. From the bestselling author of The Shortest History of Germany and The Shortest History of England, this is popular history at its thrilling best.