This volume brings together twenty classic essays by three of the greatest historians of later medieval Ireland: Edmund Curtis (d. 1943), Jocelyn Otway-Ruthven (d. 1989) and James Lydon. These scholars successively held the Lecky Chair of Modern History at Trinity College, Dublin, for a period of nearly fifty years. The collection includes several of their most influential studies on the social, institutional, and political character of the English colony in Ireland between the invasion of the late 12th century and the 'Act of Kingly Title' in 1541.It includes Otway-Ruthven's unsurpassed studies of central and local government; and James Lydon's seminal explorations of the identity of the English community in medieval Ireland. To set the scene for this pioneering work, the collection opens with Edmund Curtis' lecture on 'Irish history and its popular versions' - delivered in 1925, as the fledgling Irish Free State was coming to terms with independence. The republication of these essays in a single collection will provide scholars, students and the general public alike with ready access to an invaluable intellectual resource.