Winston Churchill shaped the relationship between Ireland and the UK more than any other British politician but his motivation was not nationalism but personal ambition, according to a new biography, writes Ryle Dwyer.

IN THE concluding sentence of his magisterial new history of Ireland from the French revolution to the present day, Professor Paul Bew wonders if, “as ethnic rage gives way to ethnic vanity, is it really possible that the enmities of Irish history are losing their power to hurt and destroy”?