This book traces the events surrounding the 1688 siege of Londonderry by Catholic soldiers, the siege that Macaulay was to call "the most memorable in the annals of the British Isles." Macrory draws on a wide range of sources to chart the origins of the conflict--the Tyrone wars, the Plantation of Ulster, the Catholic rising of 1641, and Cromwell's retribution at Brogheda and Wexford--and vividly recounts the siege itself, stressing throughout how many of the problems Ulster faces today have their roots in the 17th century and before.