If it were not for the 1916 Rising, self-governing Ireland's founding political generation would have been drawn not from Sinn Fein and the IRA, but from among the ranks of John Redmond's Irish Parliamentary Party.

This book makes the imaginative leap back to the time of the Third Home Rule Bill, arguing that the outlook of Irish Nationalist MPs was conditioned by their belief that George V would shortly be opening the Dublin parliament in College Green. From this perspective, far from being politically enervated or on the back foot, the Redmondites fought tooth and nail for self-government at Westminster, while in Ireland they went toe-to-toe with their critics, whether they were Sinn Feiners, Gaelic Leaguers, O'Brienites, Larkinists, Ulster Unionists, or Irish separatists. 

The author carefully reconstructs the lengthy and detailed process that John Redmond and the IPP enacted to raise the party to its leadership position, the assumptions and priorities underlying their actions, and the gradual heartbreak of their failure.