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Book recommendation- Troubles

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  • 07-07-2013 1:49pm
    #1
    Corruptedmorals
    Registered Users Posts: 4,194 ✭✭✭


    Hi, looking for a good thorough book about the Troubles, preferably more of the coffee-table variety with illustrations etc. rather than a huge tome with a tiny typeface. But not totally opposed to the latter either. I have a good overview, but I'm too young to really get a grasp of what it was like, those involved etc. A book containing accounts of life then would be great. Thanks.


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    #2
    ECF
    Registered Users Posts: 53 ✭✭ECF


    Ed Moloney's A secret history of the IRA


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    #3
    Frankie Lee
    Registered Users Posts: 3,285 ✭✭✭Frankie Lee


    Voices from the Grave by Ed Moloney is worth reading to get a more personal perspective too.
    Stakeknife: Britains Secret Agents in Ireland is an excellent book too while being a quick read. It is a good eye opener to how dirty the war was.


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    #4
    Citycap
    Closed Accounts Posts: 200 ✭✭Citycap


    Really to get a good unbiased overview you will need to read a wide selection of books rather than a coffee table selection.

    There's a couple of books about the Arms Trial 1970, Inside the Bridewell Gate and Orders for the Captain
    The I.R.A. Tim Pat Coogan
    Books on John Hume, Seamus Mallon, Bernadette Devlin, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness,
    Shankill Butchers, etc
    The Workers Party and the unfinished revolution
    Best thing is to hit your library. There are so many books but certainly you should cover the Civil Rights, Arms Trial, Commencement of IRA bombing campaign. The English campaign and the fall out re miscarriage of justice, Sunningdale etc etc It is a complex situation


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    #5
    eire4
    Registered Users Posts: 6,626 ✭✭✭eire4


    I would highly recommend Tim Pat Coogan's The Troubles for a good overview of the whole period.


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    #6
    guinnessdrinker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,469 ✭✭✭guinnessdrinker


    I found Ten Men Dead by David Beresford to be one of the best books I read about the period, not many illustrations but it does print a lot of the smuggled comms that came out of the Maze during the 1981 hunger strike.

    Bandit Country by Toby Harnden is also quite interesting and well written but focuses on the South Armagh area and the large scale IRA bombings in England in the 1990's.

    Northern Protestants - An Unsettled People by Susan McKay is another interesting book that dissects interviews the author has conducted with a wide cross section of people from a protestant background in NI. Would like to read an updated version of this book.


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    #7
    Che16
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16 ✭Che16


    A few of the top of my head would be:
    Insider:Gerry Bradley's life in the IRA
    Lost Revolution:story of the Official IRA and the Worker's party
    Ruairi O'Bradaigh:The life and politics of an Irish revolutionary
    Armed Struggle:history of the IRA


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    #8
    Seanbass
    Registered Users Posts: 105 ✭✭Seanbass


    Bandit country by Toby Harnden as mentioned above was excellent in my opinion.


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