This volume explores the meaning of republicanism in contemporary Ireland. While this has often been identified simply with nationalism, the book examines the connections, comparisons and contrasts between Irish republicanism and other strands of republican politics: the ideology and practice of official French republicanism, the broader European and American civic republican tradition and the contemporary revival of this tradition of citizenship.Academics from different disciplines, along with statesmen and politicians from different political perspectives, are brought together to address these questions: has Irish republicanism constituted a specific ideology? To what extent has it been part of a wider republican mainstream? Are there lessons to be drawn from the experience of French republicanism? What has been the practical impact of republican ideas in political practice? What does it mean for an Irish political party to be republican? And has republicanism any bearing on the immediate concerns of twenty-first century politics?The book examines the relationship of historical and contemporary Irish republicanism to the wider republican theoretical tradition; it considers the example of French republican experience; it analyses the variety of, and changes in, political positions among those parties describing themselves as republican in Ireland in the twenty-first century and it examines the possible relevance of the ideas of the broader republican tradition for future politics in Ireland, in the context of multiculturalism, economic globalisation and increasing regional and transnational governance. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in the ideas at work in the evolution of Irish politics, North and South.