What does 'Irish romanticism' mean and when did Ireland become romantic? How does Irish romanticism differ from the literary culture of late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain, and what qualities do they share? Claire Connolly proposes an understanding of romanticism as a temporally and aesthetically distinct period in Irish culture, during which literature flourished in new forms and styles, evidenced in the lives and writings of such authors as Thomas Dermody, Mary Tighe, Maria Edgeworth, Lady Morgan, Thomas Moore, Charles Maturin, John Banim, Gerald Griffin, William Carleton and James Clarence Mangan. Their books were written, sold, circulated and read in Ireland, Britain and America and as such were caught up in the shifting dramas of a changing print culture, itself shaped by asymmetries of language, power and population. Connolly meets that culture on its own terms and charts its history.

‘A tour de force of Irish literary and cultural history, this groundbreaking book boldly argues for the distinctiveness and coherence of Irish romanticism-a designation masterfully explained on its own terms and from within its own contested set of historical turning points.'

Porscha Fermanis - Professor of Romantic Literature, University College Dublin

‘Connolly's book does for Ireland what Marilyn Butler's Romantics, Rebels, and Reactionaries did for Britain, producing a narrative account of a major area of literary culture that is at once magisterial and granular. It is also grounded in tireless archival work, a firm command of historical contexts, a deep familiarity with the critical literature on its subjects, and fine appreciation of literary materials in many genres.'

James Chandler - William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor, The University of Chicago

‘This powerful and beautifully-written book establishes Claire Connolly as the prime authority on Irish Romanticism and radically extends the boundaries of the subject. An acute literary critic and a deeply insightful social and cultural historian, she subtly places  a rich range of writers in the multiple contexts of Ireland's imperial dimensions, economic poverty, social networks, print culture, language shift, gender relations and perceived exoticism. A landmark.'

R. F. Foster - Emeritus Professor of Irish History, University of Oxford