The Green Republic: A Visit to South Tyrone (Classics of Irish History)

First published as a novel in 1902, this actually describes real characters and events at the turn of the century in Poyntzpass, Co. Armagh. O'Gara's fictional town of Jigglestreet in South Tyrone accurately represents the real Poyntzpass where O'Gara, under his real name-William Robert MacDermott (1839-1918)-worked as a dispensary doctor. The ""novel"" is both a sophisticated sociological study of rural Ulster Protestants and a political argument for instituting joint stock company management of Irish agriculture. MacDermott believed that as long as irresponsible power remained in the hands of the old landlords or the new owner/occupiers, Irish agriculture would never operate to maximize production for the common good.