A number of political transitions – imagined, real, hoped for and feared – were central to the Irish literary production of this period. In 1880 Ireland was part of a British Empire busy expanding into new territories, with some Irish people participating enthusiastically in that expansion and others waging various struggles against British rule. By 1940 part of the island was (in most senses) an independent state, Northern Ireland was set on the path that would take it to the Troubles of the late 1960s and beyond, and the British Empire’s demise was on the horizon.