Before beginning the process of researching on the subject of the United Irish League (UIL) in Fingal, it is necessary to carryout a review of work that has already been done. A good place to begin would be the bibliographical site ‘Irish History Online’. However, in the case of new work not yet listed on the above, it is prudent to access a search-engine site such as ‘Google’. One must then broaden the search by means of a ‘double historiography’ of the local and national aspects of the theme. A guide to sources by Terence Dooley, The big houses and landed estates of Ireland: a research guide, proved an invaluable starting place in regard to published works on the UIL. Beginning with the works in the guide, in no particular order, the work of Clare C. Murphy, ‘Conflict in the west, the ranch war continues, 1911-1912, part one; in Cathair Na Mart, vol. 15 (1995) and part two, in vol. 16 (1996) were informative. The 1999, journal provides an article by Conal Thomas ‘The land for the people: the United Irish League and land reform in North Galway and West Mayo, 1898-1912’. This work gives a useful account of the establishment of the UIL in Westport in 1898 by William O’Brien. The work of Philip Bull ‘The significance of the nationalist response to the Irish land act of 1903’ gives a national flavour of the situation at that time. Fergus Campbell also deals with the national situation in his ‘Irish popular politics and the making of the Wyndham Land Act, 1901-1903’. However, to get a proper balance the following works should be looked at too; Paul Bew, Conflict and conciliation in Ireland, 1890-1910: Parnellites and radical agrarians; F.S.L. Lyons, Ireland since the famine; W.E. Vaughan, Landlords and tenants in Ireland, 1848- 1904. While all the above works are essential reading, nevertheless, they provide information on the national rather than the local, and as such are only one part of the historiography.