books on the troubles

lizzylad84 · 23-07-2017 11:40am #1

Cab anyone recommend any books on the troubles. I've red bandit country, ten men dead and making sense of the troubles

laoch na mona · 23-07-2017 3:27pm

The lost revolution by Brian Hanley is a good book if you want to know about the OIRA and the workers party, lethal allies by Anne Cadwallader and a state in denial by Margaret Urwin are good reads if you want to understand Britians role in sectarian violence.
Mad Dog: the rise and fall of Johnny Adair by David Lister is a good book if you want to understand loyalist paramilitaries better.

Bernadette Devlin's autobiography is also a great book.

Lt Dan · 24-07-2017 5:26pm

All of "Jarry's" Books, colouring books too . Hope and History is a solid enough book on the world as per Jarry

Tim Pat Coogan has a general book on the IRA with a fair bit of coverage on the 1950s

Brian Hanley's on the OIRA and dirty socialists is a great book, but, one would loose the will to live reading it. Always waffling about revolutions but offering no content. Crapping on about being radical yet their idea of radical is infighting

Ed Maloney's book on Big Ian - From Demagogue to Democrat?

Tim Pat Coogans "The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966-1996 and the Search for Peace"

Ed Maloney A Secret History of the IRA & Voices from the grave

laoch na mona · 24-07-2017 6:07pm

Lt Dan wrote: »

dirty socialists

Objective view of history there

:D:D

Manach · 24-07-2017 6:21pm

The European convention on Human Rights and the conflict in Northern Ireland by Bruce Dickson. Rather academic book but a detailed account of how the various legal regimes (Irish, British, European) were in play during this period. The author makes the case that all of these failed to address the civil rights issues and the main-stream nationalist concerns in the lead up to the Troubles.

laoch na mona · 25-07-2017 11:42am

for books on the provos I would suggest 10 dead men which is about the hunger strike, and Patrick Bishops book the provisional IRA

Full Marx · 25-07-2017 6:53pm

Robert White has recently released an excellent book called "Out Of the Ashes - an Oral History of the Provisional Republican Movement" which is quite comprehensive.

Former Hunger Striker Tommy McKearney has produced an excellent analysis of the IRA too.

Michael Farrels "The Orange State" is a must read to understand the status quo in the north which fueled the troubles. It is hard to come by though.

Del.Monte · 25-07-2017 7:00pm

Full Marx wrote: »

Robert White has recently released an excellent book called "Out Of the Ashes - an Oral History of the Provisional Republican Movement" which is quite comprehensive.

Former Hunger Striker Tommy McKearney has produced an excellent analysis of the IRA too.

Michael Farrels "The Orange State" is a must read to understand the status quo in the north which fueled the troubles. It is hard to come by though.

Not really hard to find but it's not on my bucket list.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?kn=Michael+Farrell&sortby=17&tn=The+Orange+State

Full Marx · 25-07-2017 7:03pm

Del.Monte wrote: »

Not really hard to find but it's not on my bucket list.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?kn=Michael+Farrell&sortby=17&tn=The+Orange+State

I should have elaborated "at a reasonable price" ! Some of those listed are stupidly expensive.

Arsemageddon · 25-07-2017 8:16pm

I would concur with all of the recommendations so far. The only one I haven't read is Manach's, but it is now on my list.

I would suggest Susan McKays book Bear in Mind These Dead. It is about the victims and the human cost of the troubles. It cuts through the bullsh1t and spin used by the paramilitaries and state actors to justify their actions.

A lot of information is also available on the CAIN website. A lot of books have been published about North Iron. Perhaps you could let us know if there is a particular area of the troubles you are interested in we could give specific recommendations.

BalcombeSt4 · 26-07-2017 2:32pm

INLA: Deadly Divisions - Henry McDonald & Jack Holland - Without a doubt the best book on the INLA & IPLO (the other Republicans of the Troubles) starting with the Official IRA campaign and then the OIRA ceasefire, the setting up of the INLA, how the OIRA tried to wipe the INLA out, it's most active phase from 1979 - 1984, the supergrass trials which pretty much destroyed the INLA, the creation of the IPLO, the IPLO/INLA feud, how the IPLO was wiped out by the Provos and a bit of comeback of the INLA in the mid 90's with attacks in England and assassinations of a number of high profile Loyalists

The Good Old IRA - Danny Morrison

The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament - Tommy McKearney

My Father's Watch: The Story of a Child Prisoner in 70's Britain - Carlo Gebler & Patrick Maguire (of the Maguire 7 & Guildford 4) - Very interesting account of the youngest member of the "Maguire Seven" who were a group of a series of people who were falsely convicted of IRA attacks threw out the mid 70's in
England starting with Judith Ward and just because they were either Irish or had some link to Ireland. I used to think the Muslim community was getting even worse abuse than Irish did but looking back in the 1970's & early 80's there was just raw hatred towards the Irish in Britain.

Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh - Toby Harden

Voices From the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland - Ed Moloney - Based on the Boston College tape interviews of, part 1 is about former IRA Belfast Brigade Commander Brendan Hughes and part 2 is about former UVF member & PUP leader David Ervine. The book is worth the Brendan Hughes part alone who is very candid and goes into great detail about events in the early 70's like an Official IRA/Provo feud, Bloody Friday, his escape from prison, The Four Square Laundry attack and how Adams masterminded the Old Bailey car bombings - the first Provo bombs in London and a lot more.

The Secret History of the IRA - Ed Moloney - A lot of people complained that this was just about Gerry Adams but it was a lot more than that, it went into great detail about the South Armagh & East Tyrone brigades new offensive in the mid 80's and Jim Lynagh's Maoist military strategy, some interesting insights into how the Loughgal ambush happened and the effect of the twin track approach by the SAS & the Loyalist death squads targeting the Nationalist community, while the SAS would target IRA volunteers and the Loyalists would target Nationalist/Catholic civilians and the IRA's inability to respond because of the restrictions they placed on themselves.

Memoirs of a Revolutionary - Sean MacStiofain

Provos: The IRA & Sinn Fein - Peter Taylor - His books Loyalists & Brits which all three are suppose to compliment each other are also quite good but Provos is by far the best.

Snickers Man · 08-08-2017 6:33pm

Eamon McCann's "War and an Irish Town" is a classic, IMHO. There are several editions of it, however. The first one contains a long section on the emergence of Northern Ireland and on the social divisions there which McCann then dropped from future editions, precisely because it covered much of the same ground, and from a very similar perspective, as that contained in Michael Farrell's The Orange State to which some people have referred.

McCann writes from an unashamedly Socialist/Trotskyist POV but the book is at its best when it describes the reactions of ordinary people in Derry, most of whom are/were very traditionalist and nationalist, to the events through which they lived. It has all the atmosphere and emotion of a good novel, while being very much a non-fiction book. For insights into the mindset of the Catholic Nationalists in Derry in the 1970s it's remarkable.

It's a must-read.

BalcombeSt4 · 16-08-2017 11:36pm

Just finished Joe Tiernans "The Dublin & Monaghan Bombings and The Murder Triangle" which is about as the tittle suggests the 1974 Dublin & Monaghan bombings and the fallout from it, and other major attacks carried out by the Glenanne Gang.
It exposes both the FG/Labour governments & the Garda's unwillingness to do anything to either try & stop or capture anyone for the attacks that had been carried out in this state and the cynical view held by members of that government (Conor Cruise O'Brien in particular) towards the victims families.

BalcombeSt4 · 02-10-2017 11:23am

Just picked up a good one there called "Flash Frames: twelve years reporting Belfast" by Mark Devenport. Wg=hich is basically about his time in Belfast from 1986 - 1998.

Radiant Cool Crazy Nightmare · 02-10-2017 1:29pm

A book that I found a very good read, just for the sheer shock effect alone was "Killing Rage" by Eamon Collins (since killed by the IRA), I borrowed it whilst on holidays and had it read over two days. Collins speaks of how he was recruited into the IRA and then fell foul of them and all in between. I dont know if its the type of book you are looking for but I think its worth the read.

meathstevie · 16-10-2017 12:23am

Peter Taylor's trilogy; Provo's, Loyalists and Brits.

BalcombeSt4 · 25-10-2017 2:23pm

Just finished "Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA" by Mark Urban, a little one side but very insightful.+

25-10-2017 5:19pm

Although from a political science perspective, Jennifer Todd and Joseph Ruane's Dynamics of conflict in Northern Ireland was an exceptionally insightful read.

McGarry & O'Leary's books are also very solid (Explaining Northern Ireland being the best known one).

Michael McDonald's Children of Wrath (1987) is one of the best studies of the conflict as a classical settler-colonial conflict. Ian Lustick's
Unsettled States, Disputed Lands is arguably the best international comparative study of the conflict as a settler-native conflict (he compares it with French Algeria and with Palestine). Again, some great insight into political patterns give a much-needed longer perspective on what's happening in the North (e.g. "ideological-hegemonic" stages in colonial state building and contraction).

Frank Wright's Ulster: two lands on one soil: Ulster Politics Before Home Rule is a very good study of the conflict's origins in the 18th-century as a frontier one (he's particularly good at highlighting how the breakdown of the penal laws relating to land tenancy and later ownership were absolutely central to the formation of the Orange Order and the conflicts of the 1780s that have reproduced themselves ever since).

Jayop · 25-10-2017 5:21pm

meathstevie wrote: »

Peter Taylor's trilogy; Provo's, Loyalists and Brits.

I read Provos and Gerry Adams book at the same time. It was interesting as there's so much of the same stuff covered but two very different viewpoints.

BalcombeSt4 · 07-09-2018 11:35am

Anyone who's read Toby Harnden's "South Armagh Bandit Country" does anyone who "The Undertaker" & The Surgeon" are?

BalcombeSt4 · 07-09-2018 11:47am

I've also picked up a number of very good books on The troubles since the last time I posted about a year ago.

UVF: Behind The Mask - by Aaron Edwards is a great insight into the UVF since they were formed in 1965, the leadership of Gusty Spence in 66, the tit for tat pub bombings in the early 70's, their most vile attacks during the mid 70's, their resurgence during the late 80's & early 90's, feuds with the LVF & pretty much up to the present day.

BalcombeSt4 · 07-09-2018 5:38pm

Whiole I'm on this subject, does asnyone any good books that are specfic about the IRA's campaign in England from 1973 - 1997, that covers like all the bombings in London & the areas around London, the Midlands campaign & the Northern campaign like in Manchester, the letter bomb campaigns, the attacks on military barracks & installations and the big bombs in the 90's that cost about 2 billion pounds worth of damge.

The INLA & OIRA don't count they only carried out arund 10 between them. Which is covered in the Jack holland & henry McDonald book about the INLA.

Does anyone know of any?

books on the troubles

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