This book provides a rich contextual account of one of the most significant revolutions in Irish history, which offers a challenging re-appraisal of the received picture of modern Ireland as an essentially rural society, and it highlights the role that municipal government has played in Irish life over the past two centuries. Among the topics covered are how the modern system of urban government was established, and how the Irish central government began to take an active role in regulating the local state for the first time. Under this new system, the rising Catholic bourgeoisie gained control of a significant aspect of the administrative machine for the first time, and these bodies played a pivotal role in advancing Home Rule and, later, Sinn Fein. However, after Independence, the progress of the Municipal Revolution was stifled by the establishment of an over-centralized administrative machine dominated by a rural-based ideology that belittled the role of cities and towns in Irish life.