Lots of bad takes on Ireland on Twitter. There’s little excuse as there’s a lot of excellent writing about on modern Ireland. Others will have their own suggestions but I found this book very helpful. 
A good way of beginning to understand the politics and wider political culture of any country is through its constitution. And Ireland’s is not well understood in the UK.
That’s a shame, because it has an inherent interest to a UK audience, as quite a bit of it is about codifying or building on the UK constitution, often in ways we might learn from.
Other bits - particularly the more Catholic bits - tell a fascinating story about Ireland’s changes over the years.
And generally there is a story - fleshed out in some of the cases and controversies described in the book - of a new small country working through its difficult past, grappling with the principles on which it was founded, and becoming the country that it is now.
