The great strength of this compelling book is that it manages to make large and abstract arguments while conveying a sense of the lived experience of the Irish revo­lution. With one hand, Maurice Walsh widens his lens, while simultaneously he applies a magnifying glass with the other. The result of this dexterity is an arresting set of Big Pictures interspersed with a sequence of vivid miniatures. Indeed, the particular originality of the work lies in the striking conjunction of images.  Walsh argues that the Irish revolution has too frequently been seen in splendid isolation, with historians so focused on the contortions of the Anglo-Irish relationship or so wedded to notions of Irish exceptionalism that they have failed to see beyond the confines of the island. Bitter Freedom r