Patrick R. O'Malley explores two competing modes of political historiography that emerge within Irish literature and culture: one that eludes the unresolved wounds of Ireland's violent history; and one that locates its roots in an account of colonial and specifically sectarian bloodshed and insists upon the moral necessity of naming that history. [this book is] concerned not just with Irish literature but also with the subtleties of memory and history. Although O'Malley limits his inquiry to writings in English by Protestants, those writings present varied responses to the challenge of representing Irish history so as to suggest the possibility of future stability.