Cork, a city with a history that extends back in time over fourteen centuries, became one of the great ecclesiastical centres in early Christian Ireland before the Vikings settled on the banks of the River Lee. Subsequently, a Hibernio-Viking community developed in proximity to the local Christian community, but it was supplanted in 1177 when the settlement was captured by English knights: in 1189 the city was granted a royal charter. Modern Cork developed throughout the seventeenth- and eighteenth-centuries, with city exports being supplemented by goods and services from the wider Munster area. In this book, the author looks at the city and how it developed. Using existing records, both at home and abroad, he weaves a fascinating picture of an urban settlement, instrumental to the development of Ireland as a whole, including the War of Independence, right up up to the 'Celtic Tiger' of the 1990s. Chapters deal with: Early Christian Cork; Viking Cork; Medieval and Tudor Cork; Seventeenth-century Cork; Eighteenth-century Cork; Union and Victorian Cork; Rebel Cork and Modern Cork.