Obviously as an historical overview of Ireland from the neolithic period until today, this is not the most detailed and thorough history ever written, but with that in mind this is a very good history of Ireland. The book is broken up largely in chronological chapters, with the most chapters and detail focused on the 19th and 20th centuries--particularly the Famine and the build up to Irish independence. Then the last two chapters present the history of the Republic and Northern Ireland respectively since the partition.
The book has generally good detail, providing a lot of information about the political, military, and colonial history of Ireland throughout time. However, this is definitely not a social history or anything like that, so while there are brief discussions of the status of women, or changes in labor, and so on, most of the history is political, martial, and about English/British colonialism.