This study describes Lord John Russell's efforts to improve the lot and status of Irish Catholics, both by implementing changes in the landlord and tenant system and by improving the status of the Catholic Church. It provides an account of the role of the Catholic Church in the famine of 1846.
Once more Professor Kerr marshals his formidable grasp of British and Irish archival material to write a detailed yet broad account of what was arguably the last attempt by a British government to make the Irish Union a reality ... his fine book on these momentous years in the history of the Union does seem to bear out, in some degree at least, Sir Robert Peel's earlier verdict that 'an honest despotic government would be by far the fittest government for Ireland.'
