Sir Edward Carson - a dream too far

The purpose of the present biography is to examine afresh Carson’s powerful impact upon the politics and law of his day. It is, indeed, time for a re-assessment of his career in one of the most fascinating periods in our recent history. One effect of this will be to reveal that what are often portrayed as contradictions in Carson’s political life were in reality part and parcel of a consistent approach. It will also unveil a new perception of this mesmeric personality and indicate how his response to events brought him triumphs which in turn sowed the seeds of his ultimate failure and melancholy end.Inevitably this means Carson has to be placed squarely within the context of Ireland’s turbulent, and often tragic, history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The scene is set for this in the first chapter and is later developed, for instance, with the Easter Rising 1916, the Anglo-Irish War of 1920 and the Civil War, all of which had momentous consequences for Ireland and also for Carson.It is hoped that the present narrative may give a broader, and perhaps unexpected, portrait of Lord Carson of Duncairn.