The Princess Grace Irish Library’s 2000 symposium brought together Irish critics and historians to assess the state of culture and society in the 'long nineteenth century' – 1800-1922 – during which the Act of Union defined the form of government and representation in Ireland as well as, to a great extent, the forms of opposition. Besides investigating the nature of the Union – its strengths and weaknesses, its character and progress – this bicentenary collection considers questions of private conscience and popular consciousness, language and iconography, science and evangelism, Diaspora and disempowerment, terror and consent, memory and amnesia, separation and adherence in the connected spheres of society, politics and culture.