Fergal Keane examines how the huge upheavals of Europe in the Middle Ages altered the story of Ireland irrevocably. Beginning with the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169, he investigates how the Normans changed Irish life and why Gaelic kings initially welcomed an English ruler. But it is also the story of an incomplete conquest. The English crown only finally moves to impose its will in Ireland after the Protestant Reformation places Ireland at the forefront of religious war. Show less