Paul Bew is Professor of Irish Politics at Queen's University, Belfast, a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and a cross-bench member of the House of Lords. His numerous books include Ireland: The Politics of Enmity 1789-2006¸ published in 2007 as part of the Oxford History of Modern Europe, Conflict and Conciliation in Irish Nationalism 1890-1910, a best-selling biography of Parnell and Ideology and the Irish Question, 1912-16.

Peter Gibbon is Senior Researcher at the Centre for Development Research, Copenhagen. He is author of The Origins of Ulster Unionism and joint author of Thurcroft: A Village and the Miners' Strike. He is also the editor of Social Change and Economic Reform in Africa and joint editor of Adjustment, Authoritarianism and Democracy.

Henry Patterson is Professor of Politics at the University of Ulster and the author of many books and articles on modern Irish history including Ireland Since 1939: The Persistence of Conflict (Penguin), The Politics of Illusion: A Political History of the IRA and Class Conflict and Sectarianism. With Paul Bew he is co-author of Sean Lemass and the Making of Modern Ireland and The British State and the Ulster Crisis, and with Paul Bew and Peter Gibbon he is the co-author of Northern Ireland 1921-2001: Political Forces and Social Classes.