John Childs is Professor of Military History and Director of the Centre for Military History in the University of Leeds. He has written a series of books on Early Modern European armies and warfare, including The Nine Years' War and the British Army, 1688-1697 and Warfare in the Seventeenth Century.

Child's book is especially noteworthy in that naval operations during this war are examined thoroughly, and he is good on the battlefield tactic of the contestants. Off the battlefield, Childs is adept at unravelling the command rivalries that undermined the Jacobite war effort...In his preface, Childs writes modestly that 'an Englishman coming late in his career to the history of Ireland is constantly aware of his ignorance': but his concerns are misplaced, for he easily sails over the hurdles.

• Maps; Abbreviations; Note on dates; Note on distances; Note on spelling and punctuation; Note on maps and place names; Preface; 1. Preliminaries, 1688; 2. Practical Matters; 3. Towards War, 1689; 4. The Break of Dromore and the retreat to Coleraine; 5. Clady and the Ards Peninsula. 6. The Defence of Derry and Enniskillen; 7. General Kirke; 8. Endurance; 9. The relief of Derry and Newtownbutler; 10. A tired Old Man; 11. Sligo and Dundalk; 12. Winter operations, 1689-90; 13. The Battle of Boyne; 14. From Dublin to Limerick; 15. The first siege of Limerick; 16. Cork and Kinsale; 17. A war of posts and ambuscades; 18. Spring 1691; 19. Ballymore and Athlone; 20. Aughrim and Galway; 21. The Curious Affair at Sligo, or the banalities of the small war; 22. The second siege of Limerick; 23. Dispersal; Notes; Select bibliography; Index.