In 1660 the four nations of the British Isles were governed by one imperial crown but by three parliaments. The abolition of the Scottish and Irish Parliaments in 1707 and 1800 created a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland centred upon the Westminster legislature. What did the making of the monolith mean for the four nations? Did conceptions of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh identities flourish, change or wither as a consequence to the growth of the imperial Parliament and to what extent did Parliament help or hinder a developing sense of Britishness as a new nationality? The groundbreaking essays in this volume, all based on extensive original research, address these questions from an unusually wide variety of perspectives, showing how the parliaments at Dublin, Edinburgh and, especially, Westminster, were seen and used in very different ways by people from very different communities. Parliament may have been conceived as a repository of 'the' national interest, but in practice it was the site of four national and multiple cross-national identities. This fascinating book is a major contribution to the history of the forging of the United Kingdom and national identity and will be essential reading for all undergraduates of history and politics.