'Mr. W. J. Fitzpatrick has brought out a new and much-amended edition of his capital contribution to our knowledge of "Ireland before the Union."'—Athenæum.
'But we must refer the historical student, who would know something more than the historian has yet deigned to tell us, to this remarkable production of patriotic industry. Wonderfully clear, and vivid, and varied is the portraiture interspersed in the illustration of the man and his times, and very often illumined by bright flashes of wit and humour. Mr. Fitzpatrick has been called the Irish Boswell, but he includes all the best qualities of his best editors added to Boswell. This volume ought to have a place in every historical library.'—Morning Post.
'Most complete and entertaining. As anecdote follows anecdote, and revelation after revelation is unfolded, we are lost in wonder that the perpetrators of such outrages and acts of oppression as Mr. Fitzpatrick describes, gathered from the most authentic sources, could have been suffered to follow out their evil courses for even a single week.'—Field.
'A true picture of Irish society towards the close of the last century, and shows to what sort of people the highest places of the State were in that country entrusted. The author is Mr. Fitzpatrick, who has hunted up his facts in many quarters, and woven them into an exciting narrative.'—Daily Telegraph.
'A clever work, filled with amusing anecdotes and interesting disclosures. No doubt it will have a large sale, not only in Ireland, but in the United States.'—Cosmopolitan.