Dublin has many stories: for a thousand years it was a quiet urban settlement on the calm seas of Ireland, and over the last four hundred years it has undergone significant—and often surprising—changes. Once it was the core of English power in Ireland, and it was the site of the 1916 Rising, which marked a rapid imperial retreat. This moment offered Joyce the setting for the greatest modernist novel of the era, Ulysses, completing a cultural heritage that became an economic resource for the greedy 'Tiger Town' of the 1990s.

This enchanting dossier of the city's history by David Dickson brings Dublin to life from its medieval form to the charming eighteenth century, where it reigned as the 'Napoleon of the North', and up to the millennium. It re-evaluates 120 years of the Anglo-Irish Union, where Dublin—while being the economic capital of Ireland—remained, as it is today, a place where rival religions and politics struggled for dominance. Dublin reveals the rich and fascinating history behind the making of a capital.