The first book telling the recent political and social history of Ireland through the eyes of the public was launched in Dublin last night.
In Your Opinion: Political and Social Trends in Ireland through the Eyes of the Electorate was launched at a reception in Dublin's National Library attended by politicians, academics, journalists and marketing professionals.
The book, written by Mr Jack Jones, is based on political opinion polls carried out by MRBI Ireland, of which Mr Jones is chairman and founder. The book tells the story of the enormous political and social change over the 29 years of MRBI's existence.
The Irish Times and MRBI have collaborated on a series of opinion polls on political and social issues. These began in 1982.
Editor of The Irish Times Mr Conor Brady, who launched the book last night, said it "tells the history of Ireland as it has never been told before. All historians in the end give you their opinion and their interpretation". But in this book, "you are not getting the historian's opinion. You are getting the people's opinion".
He pointed to a series of polls undertaken by MRBI for The Irish Times in Northern Ireland "at a time when it appeared the centre ground was disappearing". It was the time when Mr John Hume and Mr Gerry Adams were under pressure to end their dialogue and the period around the Downing Street Declaration when there were fears that the trend to polarisation would sweep away political progress.
Those polls had "proved that there was a middle ground" and the identification of that middle ground at the time "played no small role in achieving such stability as we now have".
Mr Jones, from Suncroft, Co Kildare, told the reception the book "spans a period of 29 years of political polling and 40 years of polling".
From a beginning carrying out commercial research for private clients, he had moved into political polling in 1973.
The book involved "an updated perspective on the political research carried out by the MRBI". He paid tribute to his colleagues Ms Aine O'Donoghue and Ms Maura Murphy for their assistance in the book, and over many years of polling.