A first-rate, tough-minded but compassionate analysis of a historic tragedy. O'Malley, Dublin-born and now teaching in the U.S., examines the hopes of every party-and the contradictions within each position. He sets aspirations against demographic and economic realities, including the growing discrepancy between the South's dynamic progress and the North's difficulties. The impasse is epitomized by the interviewees: "Few talked of the future, fewer of their children, and none of hope."