Tis chapter examines the development of civil society in modern Ireland, in particular its roots in the establishment of a myriad of nationalist-inspired artistic, cultural, language, labour, feminist and sporting groups that blossomed in the late 19th century.1 Te frst section considers the parallel between today’s Ireland and that of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and why this period has some important lessons for 21st-century Ireland’s community sector. We then examine the period preceding the late 19th-century growth in Irish civil society when the foundations were laid for the state–civil society struggles out of which the independent Irish state emerged at the beginning of the 20th century. Tis is followed by an examination of the period 1870–1923 and the creation of a virtual parallel state by Irish civil society. Te chapter concludes with an examination of the role civil society could play in the development of a new, more engaged, relationship between citizens and their state.