It was as a research student in University College, Dublin that I first became fascinated by the history of the Sinn Féin party. Desmond Williams supervised my MA dissertation, portions of which were to be cannibalised and absorbed into chapters 3 and 5 of this book. He was kindly, supportive, insightful, stimulating and frequently absent. From time to time during his legendary disappearances his place was taken by his learned and terrifying colleague, Robin Dudley Edwards. Dudley scrutinized all that I wrote with great care, fretted about my work and even dreamt about it. They were a colourful combination, and I cherish their memory.

After years abroad I returned to Dublin and to the subject of Sinn Féin. I researched intermittently on what ultimately became this book, deflected by work on two other books, by various articles, and by an infinite number of other less productive distractions. It grew; the time span to be covered doubled; new sources became available; and I developed different ways of looking at the period and its problems. The book has been many years in the making, and if its appearance is long overdue it can at least benefit from the vast literature which has appeared in the course of recent years.