Donegal was the bastion of Home Rule conservative nationalism during the tumultuous period 1911-25, while County Derry was a stronghold of hard-line unionism. In this time of immense political upheaval between these cultural and social majorities lay the deeply symbolic, religiously and ethnically divided, and potentially combustible, Derry City. What had once been a distinct, unified, socio-economic and cultural area (to nationalists and unionists alike) became an international frontier or borderland, overshadowed by the bitter legacy of Partition. The region was the hardest hit by the implementation of Partition, affecting all levels of society.

This completely new interpretation of the history of the Irish north-west provides a fair and balanced portrait of a divided borderland and addresses key arguments in Irish history and the history of revolution, counter-revolution, feuds and state-building. Forging the Border fills an important lacuna, and challenges long-held assumptions and beliefs about the road to partition in the north-west.