Burnt Out

Burnt Out
Author: Michael McCann
Publisher: Mercier Press Ltd
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2019-01-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 1781176205

On 14 August 1969, at the age of 14, Michael McCann and his family fled their home. Life changed totally for the McCanns and the entire nationalist community. Thousands of innocent people vacated their homes, driven out by the initial pogrom and then by the ongoing campaign of expulsion by loyalist violence and intimidation. The British army occupation and the continuing violence utterly devastated communities on a monumental scale. Burnt Out: How the Troubles Began, shows how the truth became one of the first casualties of the horrific events of August 1969. It examines the prominent role of state forces and the unionist government in the violence that erupted in Derry and Belfast and assesses how and why the violence began and generated three decades of subsequent brutality. Against a mountain of contrary evidence, many still choose to blame the violence on the commemoration of the Easter Rising in 1966 and the efforts of the nationalist community to defend themselves on two hellish August nights in the late summer of 1969. Burnt Out: How the Troubles Began, is essential reading for anybody interested in the outbreak and causes of 'the Troubles'.

The impact of the Troubles on the Republic of Ireland, 1968–79

The impact of the Troubles on the Republic of Ireland, 1968–79
Author: Brian Hanley
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2018-07-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1526131633

The first book to examine in detail the impact of the Northern Irish Troubles on southern Irish society. This study vividly illustrates how life in the Irish Republic was affected by the conflict north of the border and how people responded to the events there. It documents popular mobilization in support of northern nationalists, the reaction to Bloody Sunday, the experience of refugees and the popular cultural debates the conflict provoked. For the first time the human cost of violence is outlined, as are the battles waged by successive governments against the IRA. Focusing on debates at popular level rather than among elites, the book illustrates how the Troubles divided southern opinion and produced long-lasting fissures.

The Lost Revolution

The Lost Revolution
Author: Brian Hanley
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 807
Release: 2009-09-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 0141935014

The story of contemporary Ireland is inseparable from the story of the official republican movement, a story told here for the first time - from the clash between Catholic nationalist and socialist republicanism in the 1960s and '70s through the Workers' Party's eventual rejection of irredentism. A roll-call of influential personalities in the fields of politics, trade unionism and media - many still operating at the highest levels of Irish public life - passed though the ranks of this secretive movement, which never achieved its objectives but had a lasting influence on the landscape of Irish politics. 'A vibrant, balanced narrative' Diarmaid Ferriter, Irish Times Books of the Year 'An indispensable handbook' Maurice Hayes, Irish Times 'Hugely impressive' Irish Mail on Sunday 'Excellent' Sunday Business Post

Valentine Lawless, Lord Cloncurry, 1773-1853

Valentine Lawless, Lord Cloncurry, 1773-1853
Author: Karina Holton
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Ireland
ISBN: 9781846827051

This study of Valentine Lawless, 2nd Lord Cloncurry (1773-1853) provides a fresh perspective on the life of a late eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century Irishman. During his sixty years in public life, Cloncurry was associated with almost every political or public event that occurred in Ireland. Involved at the highest levels in the United Irishmen, he went on to forsake radicalism and to embrace Irish Protestant liberalism and a view of the Irish people as a nation that was clearly ahead of its time. Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century he had a profound influence on many aspects of Irish life. Lionised during his lifetime, his contribution is often overlooked, usually misunderstood, and now almost totally forgotten. As the most senior United Irishman to be allowed to return to Ireland after serving three years imprisoned without trial in the Tower of London, Cloncurry's story serves as a salutary example of the difficulties and the challenges of someone with a radical past trying to settle in a post-Union Ireland and to deal with the prejudices and suspicions of the administration. This book examines: his struggles to ameliorate the sufferings of his fellow Irishmen throughout the 1820s and 1830s irrespective of denomination; his aspiration to separate church and state and to divert tithes to the relief of the poor; his commitment to non-divisive education; his role as benevolent landlord; and his plans for economic development through canal building and bog drainage. Moreover, this book chronicles his sometimes difficult personal life, his often-turbulent relationships with Daniel O'Connell, Robert Peel, and the Duke of Wellington, his rather unsuccessful career in the House of Lords and-what was often considered his greatest achievement-working for Famine relief during the 1845-8 period. [Subject: Biography, Irish Studies, History, 19th C. Studies, Politics, United Irishmen]

The Border

The Border
Author: Diarmaid Ferriter
Publisher: Profile Books
Total Pages:
Release: 2019-02-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1782835113

Shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2019 'Anyone who wishes to understand why Brexit is so intractable should read this book. I can think of several MPs who ought to.' The Times For the past two decades, you could cross the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic half a dozen times without noticing or, indeed, turning off the road you were travelling. It cuts through fields, winds back-and-forth across roads, and wends from Carlingford Lough to Lough Foyle. It is frictionless - a feat sealed by the Good Friday Agreement. Before that, watchtowers loomed over border communities, military checkpoints dotted the roads, and smugglers slipped between jurisdictions. This is a past that most are happy to have left behind but might it also be the future? The border has been a topic of dispute for over a century, first in Dublin, Belfast and Westminster and, post Brexit referendum, in Brussels. Yet, despite the passions of Nationalists and Unionists in the North, neither found deep wells of support in the countries they identified with politically. British political leaders were often ignorant of the conflict's complexities, rarely visited the border, and privately disliked their erstwhile unionist allies. Southern leaders' anti-partition statements masked relative indifference and unofficial cooperation with British security services. From the 1920 Government of Ireland Act that created the border, the Treaty and its aftermath, through the Civil Rights Movement, Thatcher, the Troubles and the Good Friday Agreement up to the Brexit negotiations, Ferriter reveals the political, economic, social and cultural consequences of the border in Ireland. With the fate of the border uncertain, The Border is a timely intervention by a renowned historian into one of the most contentious and misunderstood political issues of our time.

North

North
Author: Seamus Heaney
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Total Pages: 85
Release: 2014-01-28
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1466864095

With this collection, first published in 1975, Heaney located a myth which allowed him to articulate a vision of Ireland--its people, history, and landscape--and which gave his poems direction, cohesion, and cumulative power. In North, the Irish experience is refracted through images drawn from different parts of the Northern European experience, and the idea of the north allows the poet to contemplate the violence on his home ground in relation to memories of the Scandinavian and English invasions which have marked Irish history so indelibly.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland
Author: Marc Mulholland
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2020-03-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0198825005

From the Plantation of Ulster in the seventeenth century to the entry into peace talks in the late twentieth century the Northern Irish people have been engaged in conflict - Catholic against Protestant, Republican against Unionist. The traumas of violence in the Northern Ireland Troubles have cast a long shadow. For many years, this appeared to be an intractable conflict with no pathway out. Mass mobilisations of people and dramatic political crises punctuated a seemingly endless succession of bloodshed. When in the 1990s and early 21st century, peace was painfully built, it brought together unlikely rivals, making Northern Ireland a model for conflict resolution internationally. But disagreement about the future of the province remains, and for the first time in decades one can now seriously speak of a democratic end to the Union between Northern Ireland and Great Britain as a foreseeable possibility. The Northern Ireland problem remains a fundamental issue as the United Kingdom recasts its relationship with Europe and the world. In this completely revised edition of his Very Short Introduction Marc Mulholland explores the pivotal moments in Northern Irish history - the rise of republicanism in the 1800s, Home Rule and the civil rights movement, the growth of Sinn Fein and the provisional IRA, and the DUP, before bringing the story up to date, drawing on newly available memoirs by paramilitary militants to offer previously unexplored perspectives, as well as recent work on Nothern Irish gender relations. Mulholland also includes a new chapter on the state of affairs in 21st Century Northern Ireland, considering the question of Irish unity in the light of both Brexit and the approaching anniversary of the 1921 partition, and drawing new lessons for the future. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Children of the Troubles

Children of the Troubles
Author: Joe Duffy
Publisher: Hachette Ireland
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020-01-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781473697355

"The bullets didn't just travel in distance, they travelled in time. Some of those bullets never stop travelling." Jack Kennedy, father of James Kennedy On 15th August 1969, nine-year-old Patrick Rooney became the first child killed as a result of the 'Troubles' - one of 186 children who would die in the conflict in Northern Ireland. Fifty years on, these young lives are honoured in a memorable book that spans a singular era. From the teenage striker who scored two goals in a Belfast schools cup final, to the aspiring architect who promised to build his mother a house, to the five-year-old girl who wrote in her copy book on the day she died, 'I am a good girl. I talk to God', Children of the Troubles recounts the previously untold story of Northern Ireland's lost children -- and those who died in the Republic, the UK and as far afield as West Germany -- and the lives that might have been. Based on original interviews with almost one hundred families, as well as extensive archival research, this unique book includes many children who have never been publicly acknowledged as victims of the Troubles, and draws a compelling social and cultural picture of the era. Much loved, deeply mourned, and never forgotten, Children of the Troubles is both an acknowledgement of and a tribute to young lives lost.

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.

Special Relationships

Special Relationships
Author: Paul Arthur
Publisher: Blackstaff Press
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2000
Genre: History
ISBN:

Although recent events are testing its durability, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 has been hailed as a triumph of Anglo-Irish diplomacy. But why did it take 30 years of intense conflict to reach an understanding of the problem before a solution could be implemented?