A Secret History of the IRA

A Secret History of the IRA
Author: Ed Moloney
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 644
Release: 2002
Genre: Ireland
ISBN: 9780393325027

A portrayal of the Irish Republican Army includes coverage of its associations with Qaddafi's regime, Margaret Thatcher's secret diplomacy with Gerry Adams, and the Catholic Church's negotiations with Republican leadership.

Lost Lives

Lost Lives
Author: David McKittrick
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing Company
Total Pages: 1674
Release: 2001
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

This is a unique work filled with passion and violence, with humanity and inhumanity. It is the story of the Northern Ireland troubles told through the lives of those who have suffered and the deaths which have resulted from the conflict.

Say Nothing

Say Nothing
Author: Patrick Radden Keefe
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 561
Release: 2020-02-25
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 0307279286

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SOON TO BE AN FX LIMITED SERIES STREAMING ON HULU • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • From the author of Empire of Pain—a stunning, intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions. One of The New York Times’s 20 Best Books of the 21st Century "Masked intruders dragged Jean McConville, a 38-year-old widow and mother of 10, from her Belfast home in 1972. In this meticulously reported book—as finely paced as a novel—Keefe uses McConville's murder as a prism to tell the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Interviewing people on both sides of the conflict, he transforms the tragic damage and waste of the era into a searing, utterly gripping saga." —New York Times Book Review "Reads like a novel ... Keefe is ... a master of narrative nonfiction. . .An incredible story."—Rolling Stone A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, TIME, NPR, and more! Jean McConville's abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville's children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress--with so many kids, she had always kept it handy for diapers or ripped clothes. Patrick Radden Keefe's mesmerizing book on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with. The brutal violence seared not only people like the McConville children, but also I.R.A. members embittered by a peace that fell far short of the goal of a united Ireland, and left them wondering whether the killings they committed were not justified acts of war, but simple murders. From radical and impetuous I.R.A. terrorists such as Dolours Price, who, when she was barely out of her teens, was already planting bombs in London and targeting informers for execution, to the ferocious I.R.A. mastermind known as The Dark, to the spy games and dirty schemes of the British Army, to Gerry Adams, who negotiated the peace but betrayed his hardcore comrades by denying his I.R.A. past--Say Nothing conjures a world of passion, betrayal, vengeance, and anguish.

Killing Rage

Killing Rage
Author: Eamon Collins
Publisher: Granta Books
Total Pages: 388
Release: 1998
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781862070479

Since the 1970s people have been murdering their neighbours in Northern Ireland. This book is the true account of the small-town violence and terror which lies behind the headlines.

What a Bloody Awful Country

What a Bloody Awful Country
Author: Kevin Meagher
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2022-08-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1785906674

"Highly readable" – Irish News "A gripping appraisal of Northern Ireland's turbulent first century. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how we have got to where we are today." – Suzanne Breen, Belfast Telegraph "A timely and lucid analysis of the Troubles that asks hard questions of successive British governments. The good news for the current government is that it also offers some answers." – Rory Carroll, The Guardian *** "For God's sake, bring me a large Scotch. What a bloody awful country!" Home Secretary Reginald Maudling, returning from his first visit to Northern Ireland in 1970 As a long and bloody guerrilla war staggered to a close on the island of Ireland, Britain beat a retreat from all but a small portion of the country – and thus, in 1921, Northern Ireland was born. That partition, says Kevin Meagher, has been an unmitigated disaster for Nationalists and Unionists alike. Following the fraught history of British rule in Ireland, a better future was there for the taking but was lost amid political paralysis, while the resulting fifty years of devolution succeeded only in creating a brooding sectarian stalemate that exploded into the Troubles. In a stark but reasoned critique, Meagher traces the landmark events in Northern Ireland's century of existence, exploring the missed signals, the turning points, the principled decisions that should have been taken, as well as the raw realpolitik of how Northern Ireland has been governed over the past 100 years. Thoughtful and sometimes provocative, What a Bloody Awful Country reflects on how both Loyalists and Republicans might have played their cards differently and, ultimately, how the actions of successive British governments have amounted to a masterclass in failed statecraft.

Voices from the Grave

Voices from the Grave
Author: Ed Moloney
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Total Pages: 538
Release: 2010-06-01
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 158648933X

A candid and brutal account of murder, abduction, and violence during the Troubles in Northern Ireland-from two men on opposite sides of the conflict. After 'the long war' in Ireland came to an end, very few paramilitary leaders on either side spoke openly about their role in that bloody conflict, but in Voices from the Grave, two leading figures from opposing sides reveal their involvement in bombings, shootings and killings on one condition: that their stories were kept secret until after their deaths. In extensive interviews given to researchers from Boston College, Brendan Hughes and David Ervine spoke with astonishing openness about their turbulent, violent lives. Hughes was a legend in the Republican movement. An 'operator', a gun-runner and mastermind of some of the most savage IRA violence of the Troubles, he was a friend and close ally of Gerry Adams and was by his side during the most brutal years of the conflict. David Ervine was the most substantial political figure to emerge from the world of Loyalist paramilitaries. A former Ulster Volunteer Force bomber and confidante of its long-time leader Gusty Spence, Ervine helped steer Loyalism's gunmen towards peace, persuading the UVF's leaders to target IRA and Sinn Fein activists and push them down the road to a ceasefire. Now their stories have been woven into a vivid narrative which provides compelling insight into a secret world and events long hidden from history.

Seventeenth-century Ireland

Seventeenth-century Ireland
Author: Brendan Fitzpatrick
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1989
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780389208143

Seventeenth Century Irelandwas chosen by CHOICEfor the 1989-1990 Outstanding Academic Books and Nonprint Material (OABN) list. The OABN list includes only the top 10% of all books reviewed by CHOICE in 1989. Contents: Introduction; Identities and Allegiances, 1603-25; The Crown and the Catholics: Royal Government and Policy 1625-37; Fateful Ideologies: The Stuart Inheritance; Wentworth and the Ulster Crisis, 1638-9; On the Eve of Revolution, 1639-41; 1641: The Plot That Never Was; Insurrection and Confederation, 1641-4; In Search of a Settlement: Ormond, Rinuccini and Cromwell, 1645-53; Theology and the Politics of Sovereignty: Jansenist, Jesuit and Franciscan; Ideologies in Conflict, 1660-91; References; Bibliography; Index R

A Short History of the Troubles

A Short History of the Troubles
Author: Brian Feeney
Publisher: The O'Brien Press
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2014-04-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1847176585

From the first symptoms of serious unrest - the Divis Street riots of 1964 - to the tortuous political manoeuvrings culminating in the 2003 Assembly elections, the book traces the reality of life in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. It details the motivation behind the IRA 'armed struggle', the Civil Rights movement, the murder campaigns of various loyalist terror groups, the major incidents of violence and the response of the British security forces and the justice system. It describes what it was like to live with bombs, army searches in the dead of night, death threats to politicians, activists and others. A detailed account of the political and personal toll of the Northern Ireland conflict.

The Intelligence War against the IRA

The Intelligence War against the IRA
Author: Thomas Leahy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2020-03-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108487505

Thomas Leahy investigates whether informers, Special Forces and other British intelligence operations forced the IRA into peace in the 1990s.

The Irish Troubles

The Irish Troubles
Author: J. Bowyer Bell
Publisher:
Total Pages: 872
Release: 1994
Genre: Irish question
ISBN: 9780717122011

This book is a combination of history, current affairs and political analysis is the definitive account of the Northern Ireland troubles. It examines both the background and the events themselves with an historical understanding and a psychological sympathy.