Wanted to make a thread where I gathered a good list of books about the Troubles of Northern Ireland.

I chose these books based if they were available on Anna's Archive. Feel free to add your own books (I know there is someone who's active here who's a big researcher on The Troubles).

First up is I think the best introductory book to the Troubles.

>Making Sense Of The Troubles (2012) by David McKittrick and David McVea

>First published two decades ago, Making Sense of the Troubles is widely regarded as the most ''comprehensive, considered and compassionate'' (Irish Times) history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Written by a distinguished journalist and a teacher of history in Northern Ireland, it surveys the roots of the problems from 1921 onwards, the descent into violence in the late 60s, and the three terrible decades that followed.

>In this fully revised and updated version, McKittrick and McVea take into account the momentous events of the ten years that followed their first publication, including the disbanding of the IRA, Ian Paisley''s deal with the Republicans and the historic power-sharing government in Belfast.

>>17842657 (OP)
>The Provos: The IRA and Sinn Fein by Peter Taylor

>The first part of the landmark trilogy documenting modern-day Northern Ireland, by the author of Loyalists and Brits. This work examines the Provos, from 1969, when the IRA was effectively dead and buried, to within a few short years, when it had resurrected to become the most feared and sophisticated terrorist organization in the world. The book is based on in-depth interviews with key personalities in the Army, Police, British and Irish governments, giving first-hand accounts of the key events. It contains material not included in the television series being broadcast on BBC 1 in autumn 1997. Never before has an outsider had such access to record the remarkable history of the provisional IRA and Sinn Fein, from their dramatic beginnings to the critical juncture they have reached today - on the brink of becoming part of the cabinet in the new government of Northern Ireland. An astonishing story, told as only Peter Taylor could.

>>17842659
>Loyalists by Peter Taylor

>Based on a three-part BBC TV series, this is an inside account of the thinking, strategies and ruthless violence of the paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. The author draws on a series of interviews both with the paramilitary leaders who mapped out the loyalist strategy and the gunmen who carried out the bombing and killing. There are also revealing interviews with loyalist and unionist politicians who operated centre stage while the paramilitaries remained in the shadows. The loyalists believe it was their clinically targeted offensive against senior members of the IRA and Sinn Fein that brought the Republican movement to the negotiating table and made the Good Friday agreement possible.

>>17842665

>Brits: The War Against the IRA by Peter Taylor

>In the final part of his trilogy exploring 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland, Peter Taylor talks to undercover agents of the British state and reveals for the first time the hidden secrets of the war they waged against the IRA for thirty years.

>PROVOS and LOYALISTS told the story of the conflict from the point of view of the Republicans and Loyalists; now the story, with all its tragic twists and turns, is told from the British perspective. For the first time, undercover soldiers, Special Branch officers and a top MI6 agent step out of the shadows and, along with the Whitehall mandarins who helped shape policy from Westminster, tell their stories.

>>17842672
>The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966–1995 and the Search for Peace by Tim Pat Coogan

>The Troubles refers to a violent thirty-year conflict, at the heart of which lay the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. Over 3,000 people were killed on all sides, and many more damaged by a legacy that continued long past 1998.

>After looking at the roots of Catholic discrimination of the Northern Irish state, Coogan points to Orange prejudice in housing, education and jobs and the lack of a Catholic outlet for peaceful protest. He argues that the war in the North started as a civil rights demonstration, but that radical Orange response soon turned protest into war. He takes a close look at Ian Paisley 'the great pornographer'; John Hume, the quiet peacemaker; Gerry Adams, gunman turned peacemaker; and Albert Reynolds, the first prime minister to insist on peace.

>In this controversial volume, Coogan covers all parts of the war, from Bloody Sunday in 1972 to the Bobby Sands hunger strike. Although written from a nationalist viewpoint, Coogan has taken a complicated history and explained it simply, with grace and wit.

>>17842685
>The IRA by Tim Pat Coogan

>An updated edition of this unique, bestselling history of the Irish Republican Army, now including behind-the-scenes information on the recent advances made in the peace process. The IRA provides the only objective, comprehensive history of the organization that has transformed the Irish nationalist movement during the past century. With clarity and objectivity, Coogan examines the IRA's origins, its foreign links, bombing campaigns, hunger strikes and sectarian violence and its role in the latest attempts to bring peace to Northern Ireland.

>Meticulously researched and backed up by interviews with past and present members of the organization, Tim Pat Coogan's book is an authoritative and compelling account of modern Irish history.

>>17842691
>Irish Freedom: The History of Nationalism in Ireland by Richard English

>Full of rich details drawn from years of original research, this study analyzes the shaping of the past, present, and future of Ireland through the history of Irish nationalism. A full presentation and explanation of why Irish nationalists have believed and acted as they have, why their ideas and strategies have changed over time, and what effect Irish nationalism has had in shaping modern Ireland is included. From the Ulster Plantation to Home Rule, from the Famine of 1847 to the Hunger Strikes of the 1970s, from Parnell to Pearse, from Wolfe Tone to Gerry Adams, from the bitter struggle of the Civil War to the uneasy peace of the early 21st century, this work investigates the key points in Irish history and debates the possibility of a post-nationalist period for Ireland.

>>17842700
>Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA by Richard English

>A timely work of major historical importance, examining the whole spectrum of events from the 1916 Easter Rising to the current and ongoing peace process, fully updated with a new afterword for the paperback edition.

>>17842705

>A Secret History of the IRA by Ed Moloney

>Filled with disclosures and based on the author's unprecedented access to the Irish Republican Army, this explosive book sparked controversy when it was first published in hardcover. Delving deeply into the inner workings, furtive plots, and deadly rivalries of the Irish Republican Army, Ed Moloney, who has covered the IRA since the late 1970s, delivers a riveting account of how one of the world's oldest and most ruthless terrorist groups was maneuvered into ending its thirty-year war with Britain. With revelations including the IRA's long and astonishing associations with Qaddafi's regime, Margaret Thatcher's secret diplomacy with Gerry Adams, the Catholic Church's clandestine negotiations with Republican leadership, and hitherto undisclosed activities of the American government under Bill Clinton, A Secret History rewrites, with dramatic results, the story of this intractable conflict. In particular, fascinating material on Adams's Machiavellian rise to power establishes the IRA leader as one of the most complex political figures of our time. Like Thomas Friedman in From Beirut to Jerusalem, Moloney brings a sharply intelligent reporter's eye to a tangled history often baffling to outsiders.

>>17842714

>The Legacy of the Good Friday Agreement: Northern Irish Politics, Culture and Art after 1998

>This book provides a multidisciplinary collection of essays that seek to explore the deeply problematic legacy of post-Agreement Northern Ireland. Thus, the authors of this book look at a number of issues that continue to stymie the development of a robust and sustainable peacebuilding project, including segregation, contested parades and flags, ethnic party mobilization, and memorialization. Towards addressing these contemporary issues, authors are drawn from a range of disciplines, including politics, history, literature, drama, cultural studies, sociology, and social psychology.

>>17842729

>The IRA on Film and Television: A History by Mark Connelly

>The Irish Republican Army (IRA) has for decades pursued the goal of unifying its homeland into a single sovereign nation, ending British rule in Northern Ireland. Over the years, the IRA has been dramatized in motion pictures directed by John Ford (The Informer), Carol Reed (Odd Man Out), David Lean (Ryan's Daughter), Neil Jordan (Michael Collins), and many others. Such international film stars as Liam Neeson, James Cagney, Richard Gere, James Mason and Anthony Hopkins have portrayed IRA members alternately as heroic patriots, psychotic terrorists and tormented rebels.

>This work analyzes celluloid depictions of the IRA from the 1916 Easter Rising to the peace process of the 1990s. Topics include America's role in creating both the IRA and its cinematic image, the organization's brief association with the Nazis, and critical reception of IRA films in Ireland, Britain and the United States.

>>17842737

>Policing Twentieth Century Ireland: A History of An Garda Síochána by Vicky Conway

>The twentieth century was a time of rapid social change in Ireland: from colonial rule to independence, civil war and later the Troubles; from poverty to globalisation and the Celtic Tiger; and from the rise to the fall of the Catholic Church. Policing in Ireland has been shaped by all of these changes. This book critically evaluates the creation of the new police force, an Garda Síochána, in the 1920s and analyses how this institution was influenced by and responded to these substantial changes.

>Beginning with an overview of policing in pre-independence Ireland, this book chronologically charts the history of policing in Ireland. It presents data from oral history interviews with retired gardaí who served between the 1950s and 1990s, giving unique insight into the experience of policing Ireland, the first study of its kind in Ireland. Particular attention is paid to the difficulties of transition, the early encounters with the IRA, the policing of the Blueshirts, the world wars, gangs in Dublin and the growth of drugs and crime. Particularly noteworthy is the analysis of policing the Troubles and the immense difficulties that generated.

>This book is essential reading for those interested in policing or Irish history, but is equally important for those concerned with the legacy of colonialism and transition.

>this terrifies, confuses, and enrages the provo

>In December 1972, Jean McConville, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her 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.

>Patrick Radden Keefe writes an intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions.

>>17842742

>Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles by Brian Feeney, Seamus Kelters, David McKittrick, David McVea and Chris Thornton

>This is the story of the Northern Ireland troubles told as never before. It is not concerned with the political bickering, but with the lives of those who have suffered and the deaths which have resulted from more than three decades of conflict.

>Over a seven-year period, the authors examined every death which was directly caused by the troubles. Their research involved interviewing witnesses, scouring published material, and drawing on a range of investigative sources to produce this study. They trace the origins of the conflict from the firing of the first shots, through the carnage of the 1970s and 1980s and up to the republican and loyalist ceasefires and beyond.

>All the casualties are remembered here - the RUC officer, the young soldier, the IRA volunteer, the loyalist paramilitary, the Catholic mother, the Protestant worker, and the new-born baby.

>>17842753
Oh hey thanks, was going to post that soon.

>>17842761
My pleasure

>>17842758
>The Shankill Butchers: A Case Study of Mass Murder by Martin Dillon

>In the 1970s, in some of the most violent days of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, a group of Protestant paramilitaries embarked on a spree of indiscriminate murder which left thirty Catholics dead in the Shankill area of Belfast. Their leader was Lenny Murphy: a fanatical Unionist whose Catholic-sounding surname had led to his persecution as a child, Murphy swore revenge on all Catholics, and with his gang wreaked havoc onto an already fractured city. Not for the squeamish, The Shankill Butchers is a horrifying and detailed account of one of the most brutal series of murders in British legal history - a phenomenon whose real nature has been obscured by the troubled and violent context from which it sprang.

>>17842769

>The Dirty War: Covert Strategies and Tactics Used in Political Conflicts by Martin Dillon

>1969 was a year of rising tension, violence and change for the people of Northern Ireland. Rioting in Derry's Bogside led to the deployment of British troops and a shortlived, uneasy truce. The British army soon found itself engaged in an undercover war against the Provisional IRA, which was to last for more than twenty years.

>In this enthralling and controversial book, Martin Dillon, author of the bestselling The Shankill Butchers, examines the roles played by the Provisional IRA, the State forces, the Irish Government and the British Army during this troubled period. He unravels the mystery of war in which informers, agents and double agents operate, revealing disturbing facts about the way in which the terrorists and the Intelligence Agencies target, undermine and penetrate each other's ranks.

>The Dirty War is investigative reporting at its very best, containing startling disclosures and throwing new light on previously inexplicable events.

>>17842774
>Sinn Féin: A Hundred Turbulent Years by Brian Feeney

>Sinn Féin is one of the oldest and most controversial parties in Irish politics. This is the fascinating story of a party which has repeatedly reshaped its identity over a hundred years. From Arthur Griffith to Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin boasts a roll-call of major personalities from twentieth-century Irish history including de Valera, Markievicz, Collins, Ó Brádaigh, Goulding, MacGiolla, and McGuinness. Brian Feeney traces Sinn Féin's zigzag path towards constitutional politics and presents a critical analysis of the party's personalities and policies over the century. He shows how it has arrived at last in government in the north with hopes of a future role in coalition in the republic, and confidently predicting a united Ireland. This is an important and timely book from an esteemed journalist, and an impartial analysis of Sinn Féin's involvement in Irish politics, north and south, over the last hundred years.

>>17842785
>The A to Z of the Northern Ireland Conflict by Gordon Gillespie

>For nearly four decades the conflict in Ireland has embittered relations between the communities living there and spoiled relations between the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain. For three decades it escalated, punctuated by periodic bloody clashes followed by somewhat calmer periods of tension during which violence of all sorts-robberies, kidnappings, serious injuries and deaths-were all too common. During the past decade, fortunately, all sides have realized that armed solutions were unlikely to bring a solution to anyone's problems and that peace should be given a chance. Fortunately, with the establishment of a new Northern Ireland Executive, there is a general acceptance that the conflict is now part of the past.

>The A to Z of the Northern Ireland Conflict covers the history of "the Troubles" through a chronology covering the Northern Ireland conflict and peace process from 1968 until the formation of the new Northern Ireland Executive in May 2007, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and several hundred cross-referenced dictionary entries on main events, individuals, and organizations. Researchers with an interest in the Northern Ireland conflict will find this book to be an essential addition to their collection of reference books on the subject.

>>17842792
>The Hoods: Crime and Punishment in Belfast by Heather Hamill

>A distinctive feature of the conflict in Northern Ireland over the past forty years has been the way Catholic and Protestant paramilitaries have policed their own communities. This has mainly involved the violent punishment of petty criminals involved in joyriding and other types of antisocial behavior. Between 1973 and 2007, more than 5,000 nonmilitary shootings and assaults were attributed to paramilitaries punishing their own people. But despite the risk of severe punishment, young petty offenders—known locally as “hoods”—continue to offend, creating a puzzle for the rational theory of criminal deterrence. Why do hoods behave in ways that invite violent punishment?

>In The Hoods, Heather Hamill explains why this informal system of policing and punishment developed and endured and why such harsh punishments as beatings, “kneecappings,” and exile have not stopped hoods from offending. Drawing on a variety of sources, including interviews with perpetrators and victims of this violence, the book argues that the hoods’ risky offending may amount to a game in which hoods gain prestige by displaying hard-to-fake signals of toughness to each other. Violent physical punishment feeds into this signaling game, increasing the hoods’ status by proving that they have committed serious offenses and can “manfully” take punishment yet remained undeterred. A rare combination of frontline research and pioneering ideas, The Hoods has important implications for our fundamental understanding of crime and punishment.

>>17842805
>The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party by Brian Hanley and Scott Millar

>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.

>>17842812

>Irish Republican Terrorism and Politics: A Comparative Study of the Official and the Provisional IRA by Kacper Rekawek

>This book examines the post-ceasefire evolutions and histories of the main Irish republican terrorist factions, and the interconnected character of politics and militarism within them.

>Offering the first comparative study of the two leading Irish republican terrorist movements the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA (PIRA), this book presents the lesser-known Officials’ political-military evolution and analyses whether they could have been role models for the Provisionals. Not only does it compare the terrorism and the politics of the Officials and Provisionals in the aftermath of their seminal ceasefires of 1972 and 1994, it also presents the Irish republican history in a new light and brings to the fore the understudied and disregarded Officials who called their seminal ceasefire twenty-two years before their rivals in 1972. In doing this, the work discusses whether the PIRA might have learned lessons from the bitter and ultimately unsuccessful experience of the Officials.

>This book goes beyond traditional interpretations of the rivalry and competition between the two factions with the Officials usually seen as non-violent but unsuccessful and the Provisionals less politically inclined and mostly concerned with their armed struggle. Simultaneously, it dispels the myth of the alleged Provisional republican copying of their Official republican counterparts who seemed ready for a political compromise in Northern Ireland more than twenty years before the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Finally, it comprehensively compares the Officials and the Provisionals within the identified key areas and assesses the two factions’ differences and similarities. .

>This book will be of much interest to students of Irish politics, terrorism studies, security studies and politics in general.

>>17842818

>Inside the IRA: Dissident Republicans and the War for Legitimacy by Andrew Sanders

>Would the 'real' IRA please stand up? Why, and how, the IRA splintered. The Real IRA, the Continuity IRA, the Irish National Liberation Army, the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA have all assumed responsibility for the struggle for Irish freedom over the course of the late-20th century. Yet as recently as 1969 there was only one Irish Republican Army trying to unify Ireland using physical force., Andrew Sanders explains how and why the transition from one IRA to several IRAs occurred, analysing all the dissident factions that have emerged since the outbreak of the Northern Ireland troubles. He looks at why these groups emerged, what their respective purposes are, and why, in an era of relative peace and stability in Northern Ireland, they seek to prolong the violence that cost over 3500 lives.

>>17842830

>Bandit Country: The IRA and South Armagh by Tom Harnden

>First published in 1999 this exposé by the Orwell Prize-winning journalist Toby Harnden draws on interviews and secret documents to shed light on the IRA’s border stronghold of South Armagh. It reveals how, under the leadership of Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy, the area was used to plan bombings in England, the assassination of Lord Mountbatten, and the Warrenpoint massacre of 18 British soldiers.

>>17842838

>Hunger Strike: Margaret Thatcher's Battle with the IRA, 1980-1981 by Thomas Hennessey

>Based on recently declassified British government documents, this authoritative new book by best-selling popular historian Thomas Hennessey argues that it was almost impossible for the British government to grant the demands of the Irish Republican prisoners, regardless of the impact that the hunger strikes had in boosting support for Sinn Fein. The concession of the '5 demands' would have amounted to POW status for Republican prisoners and would have fatally undermined the British position that it was fighting terrorism. Controversially, Hennessey concludes that the long-term consequence for the Republican Movement was an irreversible change of strategy, effectively sowing the seeds of the end of the armed struggle as far back as 1981. In the book, Margaret Thatcher's personal role in the hunger strikes is forensically analyzed, including her clashes with Charles Haughey and her early experience of Irish Republicanism: the assassinations of Airey Neave and Lord Mountbatten, as well as the Warrenpoint Ambush. The book also reveals: Thatcher's authorization of the back channel between MI6 and the IRA * fierce clashes between the foreign office and the NIO over the handling of the crisis * the role of the United States and the views of Ronald Reagan and Ted Kennedy * Richard O'Rawe's controversial assertion that there was a deal on the table to end the strike in July 1981, after the death of the Patsy O'Hara, the fourth prisoner to die. The book argues that the outcome of the hunger strike pushed the Republican Movement down the path to constitutional politics - and ultimately resulted in the end of the armed struggle. It is a unique and definitive account of one of the seminal events in modern Irish history.

>>17842842

>The American Connection: U. S. Guns, Money and Influence in Northern Ireland by Jack Holland

>Belfast-born author and journalist Jack Holland believes that the troubles in Northern Ireland of the last thirty years cannot be truly understood without taking into account the influence of Irish America. Beginning in nineteenth century America with the Fenian Brotherhood, an American connection has continued right up to the Good Friday Agreement.

>>17842851

>Divided We Stand: The Strategy and Psychology of Ireland's Dissident Terrorists by John Horgan

>Terrorism has returned to the streets of Northern Ireland. In the years after the 1998 Real IRA bombing of Omagh, which killed 29 people, violent dissident Republican groups have re-emerged as a major security threat to a region that has been denied peace, stability, and prosperity for too long.

>Those responsible have many names. They are breakaways, splinter factions, spoilers, and "residual" terrorists. The Real IRA, Continuity IRA, and Óglaigh na hÉireann are only some of the groups now responsible for a growing wave of bombings, shootings, threats, and intimidation across Northern Ireland. Commonly known as "the dissidents," these are the rejectionists for whom there seems to be no negotiated settlement, no peace deal, no consensus solution that will convince them to accept the will of the majority of the people on the island of Ireland.

>Divided We Stand: The Strategy and Psychology of Ireland's Dissident Terrorists presents the results of meticulous research conducted by the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at the Pennsylvania State University. Since 2007, John Horgan, Director of the center, has led a research project to monitor the activities of Ireland's new terrorists. Drawing on one of the largest open-source militant databases ever assembled, IDivided We Stand/I describes the activities, histories, motivations, psychology, and strategy of the small, dynamic, and rapidly evolving splinter groups that continue to erode peace, stability, and normalization in Northern Ireland.

>>17842856
>Stakeknife: Britain's Secret Agents in Ireland by Martin Ingram and Greg Harkin

>An explosive exposé of how British military intelligence really works-from the inside. This book presents the stories of two undercover agents: Brian Nelson, who worked for the Force Research Unit (FRU), aiding loyalist terrorists and murderers in their bloody work; and the man known as Stakeknife, deputy head of the IRA's infamous "Nutting Squad," the internal security force that tortured and killed suspected informers.

>>17842869
>Stakeknife's Dirty War: The Inside Story of Scappaticci, the IRA’s Nutting Squad, and the British Spooks who Ran the War by Richard O'Rawe

>In this sensational exposé of British Intelligence’s top informer in the upper ranks of the IRA, Richard O’Rawe delivers the most definitive account yet of the Troubles’ most enigmatic, notorious and sinister figure, Freddie Scappaticci. Codenamed Stakeknife, from the late 1970s through to his eventual exposure in 2003 he was the ‘jewel in the crown’ of a British infiltration system designed to cause mayhem and chaos in the IRA’s military operations. O’Rawe gained unprecedented access to Scappaticci’s former comrades, who reveal extraordinary details of the inner workings of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit. Headed by Scappaticci, this secretive group was known locally as the ‘Nutting Squad’ owing to its fearsome reputation for the abduction, interrogation, torture and execution of volunteers suspected of working for the British or the RUC. The political scandal at the heart of this story is that Scappaticci’s intelligence handlers were aware of almost every abduction and execution he carried out prior to it taking place; a scandal that became the subject of the British government sponsored inquiry, Operation Kenova. In this compelling and extraordinary story of state-sanctioned murder and extreme moral ambiguity in the overriding quest for the protection of ‘national security’, the truth is truly stranger than fiction.

>>17842881

>Who Was Responsible for the Troubles?: The Northern Ireland Conflict by Liam Kennedy

>The Troubles claimed the lives of almost four thousand people in Northern Ireland, most of them civilians; forty-five thousand were injured in bombings and shootings. Relative to population size this was the most intense conflict experienced in Western Europe since the end of the Second World War. The central question posed in this book is fundamental, yet it is one that has rarely been asked: Who was primarily responsible for the prosecution of the Troubles and their attendant toll of the dead, the injured, and the emotionally traumatized? Liam Kennedy, who lived in Belfast throughout most of the conflict, was long afraid to raise the question and its implications. After years of reflection and research on the matter he has brought together elements of history, politics, sociology, and social psychology to identify the collective actors who drove the conflict onwards for more than three decades, from the days of the civil rights movement in the late 1960s to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The Troubles in Northern Ireland are a world-class problem in miniature. The combustible mix of national, ethnic, and sectarian passions that went into the making of the conflict has its parallels today in other parts of the world. Who Was Responsible for the Troubles? is an original and controversial work that captures the terror and the pain but also the hope of life and the pursuit of happiness in a deeply divided society.

>>17842884

>The Intelligence War Against the IRA by Thomas Leahy

>The exposure of two senior republicans as informers for British intelligence in 2005 led to a popular perception that the IRA had 'lost' the intelligence war and was pressurised into peace. In this first in-depth study across the entire conflict, Thomas Leahy re-evaluates the successes and failures of Britain's intelligence activities against the IRA, from the use of agents and informers to special-forces, surveillance and electronic intelligence. Using new interview material alongside memoirs and Irish and UK archival materials, he suggests that the IRA was not forced into peace by British intelligence. His work sheds new light on key questions in intelligence and security studies. How does British intelligence operate against paramilitaries? Is it effective? When should governments 'talk to terrorists'? And does regional variation explain the outcome of intelligence conflicts? This is a major contribution to the history of the conflict and of why peace emerged in Northern Ireland.

>>17842890

>Agents of Influence: Britain’s Secret Intelligence War Against the IRA by Aaron Edwards

>Recruited by British Intelligence to infiltrate the IRA and Sinn Féin during the height of the Northern Ireland Troubles, they were ‘agents of influence’. With codenames like INFLICTION, STAKEKNIFE, 3007 and CAROL, these spies played a pivotal role in the fight against Irish republicanism. Now, for the first time, some of these agents have emerged from the shadows to tell their compelling stories. Agents of Influence takes you behind the scenes of the secret intelligence war which helped bring the IRA’s armed struggle to an end. Historian Aaron Edwards, the critically acclaimed author of UVF: Behind the Mask, explains how the IRA was penetrated by British agents, with explosive new revelations about the hidden agendas of prominent republicans like Martin McGuinness and Freddie Scappaticci and lesser-known ones like Joe Haughey and John Joe Magee. Bringing to light recently declassified TOP SECRET documents and the first-hand testimonies of agents and their handlers, Edwards reveals how British Intelligence gained extraordinary access to the IRA’s inner circle and manipulated them into engaging with the peace process. With new insights into the spy masters behind the scenes, their strategies and tactics, and operations in Europe, the United States and beyond, Agents of Influence offers a rare and shocking glimpse into betrayal at the heart of Irish republicanism during the vicious decades of the Troubles.

>>17842895

>The Provisional IRA in England: The Bombing Campaign 1973-1997 by Gary McGladdery

>In this revealing and fascinating account, the impact of the Provisional IRA's bombing campaign in Britain on both British government policy towards Northern Ireland and the internal politics of the republican movement, are examined in detail. The book highlights the early thinking of the British government and draws on recently released public records from 1939, 1973 and 1974. It makes extensive use of television documentary footage to offer a broader analysis. The book also examines republican rationale behind the campaign, the reasoning behind the use of particular tactics and the thinking behind atrocities such as the Birmingham bombings. Using a range of new evidence, the book highlights the bankruptcy of republican strategic thinking and challenges the notion that successive British governments appeased republicans because of the threat of bombs in London. The analysis of the campaign is placed within the wider context of the ongoing violence in Northern Ireland as well as the history of republican violence in England dating back to the nineteenth century.

>>17842905

>The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament by Tommy McKearney

>This book analyses the underlying reasons behind the formation of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), its development, where this current in Irish republicanism is at present and its prospects for the future.

>Tommy McKearney, a former IRA member who was part of the 1980 hunger strike, challenges the misconception that the Provisional IRA was only, or even wholly, about ending partition and uniting Ireland. He argues that while these objectives were always the core and headline demands of the organisation, opposition to the old Northern Ireland state was a major dynamic for the IRA’s armed campaign. As he explores the makeup and strategy of the IRA he is not uncritical, examining alternative options available to the movement at different periods, arguing that its inability to develop a clear socialist programme has limited its effectiveness and reach.

>This authoritative and engaging history provides a fascinating insight into the workings and dynamics of a modern resistance movement.

>>17842912

>More Questions Than Answers: Reflections on a Life in the RUC by Kevin Sheehy

>Starting from a working-class background in North Belfast, he describes his progress through St Malachy's College to Trinity College Dublin, where he met and befriended Pat Finucane, later assassinated by loyalist paramilitaries. Though they would go their different ways politically, it never came between them. After graduation, Kevin entered the RUC as its first Catholic graduate and progressed steadily through the ranks, reaching the position of Detective-Superintendent. He helped investigate hundreds of paramilitary murders, including several of the most infamous incidents during these turbulent years. He investigated the assassination attempt on Bernadette McAliskey; Warrenpoint, where eighteen members of the Parachute Regiment were killed; and the activities of various 'rogue cops'. He was press officer for the Omagh bombing investigation and gives the inside story of this great tragedy. His experiences as head of the Anti-Racketeering Squad and the Drugs Squad give an unequalled insight into the criminal activities of paramilitaries as well as the quite distinct political agendas of the Northern Ireland Office, Special Branch and M15. Ultimately, these conflicts would bring about his downfall, which he describes with painful honesty - thus the title of the book.

>>17842920

>Out of the Ashes: An Oral History of Provisional Irish Republicanism by Robert W. White

>Out of the Ashes is the definitive history of the Provisional Irish Republican movement, from its formation at the outset of the modern Troubles up to and after its official disarmament in 2005. Robert White, a prolific observer of IRA and Sinn Féin activities, has amassed an incomparable body of interview material from leading members over a thirty-year period. In this defining study, the interviewees provide extraordinary insights into the complex motivations that provoked their support for armed struggle, their eventual reform, and the mind-set of today’s ‘dissidents’ who refuse to lay down their arms.

>Those interviewed stem from every stage of the Provisionals’ history, from founding figures such as Seán Mac Stiofáin, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Joe Cahill to the new generation that replaced them: Martin McGuinness, Danny Morrison, and Brendan Hughes among others. Out of the Ashes is a pioneering history that breaks new ground in defining how the Provisionals operated, caused worldwide condemnation, and were transformed by constitutional politics.

>>17842923

>The Thin Green Line: The History of the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC 1922-2001 by Richard Doherty

>Formed out of the Royal Irish Constabulary at the time of Partition, the RUC's history is predictably a turbulent one right through to its replacement in 2001 by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Few police forces in the world have suffered so grievously as the RUC and this book is a fitting memorial to the sacrifices made in the interests of the civil population it was determined to protect. Throughout its history, it has not only had to perform normal police duties but contain the ever present IRA threat.

>In 1969, the climate changed and ushered in a new and even more violent era of sectarian strife. The emergence of extreme nationalist organizations posed grave problems and, with the RUC in a prime role, the position of the Chief Constable was hugely important.

>This book tells the story of a remarkable police force without fear or favor. Ironically its reward for containing a hugely challenging internal security situation and at the same time policing the community traditionally was its disbandment.

>>17842931

>The Routledge Handbook of the Northern Ireland Conflict and Peace

>The Routledge Handbook of the Northern Ireland Conflict and Peace is the first multi-authored volume to specifically address the many facets of the 30-year Northern Ireland conflict, colloquially known as the Troubles, and its subsequent peace process. This volume is rooted in opening space to address controversial subjects, answer key questions, and move beyond reductive analysis that reproduces a simplistic two community theses. The temporal span of individual chapters can reach back to the formation of the state of Northern Ireland, with many starting in the late 1960s, to include a range of individuals, collectives, organisations, understandings, and events, at least up to the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement in 1998.

>This volume has forefronted creative approaches in understanding conflict and allows for analysis and reflection on conflict and peace to continue through to the present day. With an extensive introduction, preface, and 45 individual chapters, this volume represents an ambitious, expansive, interdisciplinary engagement with the North of Ireland through society, conflict, and peace from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives, theoretical frameworks, and methodological approaches.

>While allowing for rich historical explorations of high-level politics rooted in state documents and archives, this volume also allows for the intermingling of different sources that highlight the role of personal papers, memory, space, materials, and experience in understanding the complexities of both Northern Ireland as a people, place, and political entity.

>>17842937

>The Crowned Harp: Policing Northern Ireland by by Graham Ellison and Jim Smyth

>The Crowned Harp provides a detailed analysis of policing in Northern Ireland. Tracing its history from 1922, Ellison and Smyth portray the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) as an organisation burdened by its past as a colonial police force. They analyse its perceived close relationship with unionism and why, for many nationalists, the RUC embodied the problem of the legitimacy of Northern Ireland, arguing that decisions made on the organisation, composition and ideology of policing in the early years of the state had consequences which went beyond the everyday practice of policing. The authors provide an extended discussion of policing after the outbreak of civil unrest in 1969, ask why policing was cast in a paramilitary mould, and look at the use of special constabularies and the way in which the police dealt with social unrest which threatened to break down sectarian divisions. Examining the reorganisations of the RUC in the 1970s and 1980s, Ellison and Smyth focus on the various structural, legal and ideological components, the professionalisation of the force and the development of a coherent, if contradictory, ideology. The analysis of the RUC during this period sheds light on the problematic nature of using the police as a counter insurgency force in a divided society. Perceptions of the police, and the opinions of rank and file members are examined and an assessment is made of the various alternative models of policing, such as community policing and local control. This book offers important lessons about the nature of policing in divided societies.

>>17842949

>A History of Ulster by Jonathan Bardon

>First published in 1992, A History of Ulster was an instant success with historians and the wider reading public, and quickly became established as the definitive book on the subject. For this edition Jonathan Bardon has written an introductory chapter covering events since 1992. His description of the process that saw the region emerge from thirty years of brutal conflict and move haltingly towards peace is a fitting coda to this classic of Irish history.

>>17842958


>A Very British Jihad : Collusion, Conspiracy and Cover-Up in Northern Ireland by Paul Larkin

>In April 2003, the Stevens Report provided the first official acknowledgement of collusion between loyalist armed groups and British security forces in the murders of nationalists in Northern Ireland. Yet, as this book demonstrates, such collusion and associated conspiracies have been a central feature of the British response to the conflict in Ireland for more than thirty years. That response, argues Paul Larkin, amounts to a Holy War, or Jihad, in the name of Protestantism and the British monarchy. That war has been swathed in secrecy and denial, protected by notions of 'national security' that pervade every corner of the legal system and the political establishment a very British Jihad.Investigative journalist Paul Larkin made his first film for Spotlight BBC Northern Ireland's current affairs programme in February 1989. It was about the solicitor Pat Finucane, murdered by loyalists operating with the assistance of British military intelligence. There began a trail that first led Larkin to the diary of British agent and UDA intelligence officer Brian Nelson. What Nelson's diary revealed was that British military intelligence and covert units, including the Force Research Unit and 14th Intelligence, were intimately involved with loyalist armed groups. These groups had been equipped with armaments sourced in South Africa and smuggled into Northern Ireland with the full knowledge of MI5. Paul Larkin made many films for Spotlight over the next seven years, examining among other things controversial killings, the burgeoning illicit drugs trade, the role of informers and agents, thelinks between soldiers, police officers and loyalist gunmen, RUC cover-ups and the notorious Portadown based 'ratpack' led by 'king rat' Billy Wright.

>>17842971

>I.N.L.A. - Deadly Divisions by Henry McDonald and Jack Holland

>The Irish National Liberation Army was one of the most ruthless terrorist organisations during the troubles in Northern Ireland. Formed in 1974 as a splinter group of the Official IRA, the INLA's campaign of murder throughout the 1970s and 1980s included such notorious acts as the bombing of the Droppin' Well in Derry in 1982 and, perhaps most infamously, the kidnapping and mutilation of Dublin dentist by former member, the "Border Fox".

>Many of their leading members found death at the end of a gun, including founder members Seamus Costello and Ronnie Bunting, and leader Dominic McGlinchey. The INLA were also involved in numerous bloody feuds and splits. This new revised edition of a classic book brings the INLA story right up to date, featuring the 1997 killing of LVF leader Billy "King Rat" Wright; their 1998 ceasefire; their continuing involvement in punishment attacks and criminal activities; and their declaration, in October 2009, that their armed campaign was finally over.

>>17842982

>Black Operations: The Secret War Against the Real IRA by John Mooney and Michael O'Toole

>This is the long awaited book on the real IRA. It tells the story from 3 different perspectives; that of the real IRA Army Council, that of the security services, and that of republican victims. Few people will put this book down without understanding the new underground army, its bloody campaign, and those who control it.

>>17842989

>UVF: Behind the Mask by Aaron Edwards

>UVF: Behind the Mask is the gripping and shocking history of the Ulster Volunteer Force, from the formation of its post-1965 incarnation up to the present day. Aaron Edwards, who grew up in the Protestant working class community in North Belfast, blends rigorous research with unprecedented access to leading members of the UVF. His unique position reveals startling revelations into the inner-workings of one of the world's oldest and most ruthless terrorist groups, explaining the grisly details behind their sadistic torture and murder techniques, and their high profile atrocities. Brilliantly told through a compelling true crime narrative, Edwards offers key insights into the surrounding historical, social, and political environment of which the UVF was a direct product. Interviews with high-profile UVF members-including Billy Mitchell, David Ervine, Billy Wright, Billy Hutchinson, Gary Haggarty, and the group's current leadership, as well as their loyalist rivals such as Johnny Adair, and the police officers who sought to bring the paramilitaries to justice-reveal the secret details behind the group's violent campaign. UVF: Behind the Mask assesses the long-term effects of UVF violence on its own members, supporters and wider Northern Irish society, explaining, for the first time, how law enforcement agencies used informers and agents to combat UVF violence. Edwards' life and career has led him to the centre of the UVF's long, dark underbelly; in this defining work he offers a comprehensive and authoritative study of an armed group that has played a pivotal role in the Irish conflict.

>>17843008

>UVF: The Endgame by Jim Cusack and Henry McDonald

>Now that Northern Ireland’s “troubles” appear to be over, with old enemies the DUP and Sinn Féin sharing power, what will happen to the hard men of loyalism?

>The Ulster Volunteer Force emerged during the first sparks of Northern Ireland’s Troubles in the mid-1960s. Their campaign of violence quickly marked them out as one of the most extreme loyalist groups.

>Henry MacDonald and Jim Cusack provide a fascinating insight into the UVF’s origins, growth and decline. They follow the careers of some of the key players in the UVF, including Gusty Spence, Billy Wright and David Ervine. They catalogue the atrocities in which the UVF were involved, including the Dublin and Monaghan bombings; the emergence of the notorious renegade Shankill Butchers; and the various bloody feuds that have infected loyalism. They trace the paramilitary organisation from the violent margins, through the horrors of the 1970s and 1980s, to its shaky 1994 ceasefire and its crucial (if sometimes reluctant) role in the peace process that led up to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

>>17843022

>Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA by Ian S. Wood

>Sectarian murder, torture, bloody power struggles and racketeering are what for many define their image of the Ulster Defence Association. Yet as Northern Ireland’s Troubles worsened in 1971 and 1972, it emerged with a mass membership to defend Loyalist areas against the IRA and to uphold the Union with Britain. By 1974 it was able to defy the will of an elected government and it went on to formulate political strategies for working-class Loyalism.Ian S. Wood uses his specialist knowledge as well as extensive interviews to recount these events and the ruthless war waged by the UDA on the nationalist community. He explores issues such as the UDA’s descent into criminality and its relationship with the ‘secret war’ conducted by Britain’s undercover services and he assesses what impact the organisation had on the outcome of Europe’s worst political and ethnic conflict between 1945 and the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia after 1990.

>>17843035

>Inside the UDA: Volunteers and Violence by Colin Crawford

>This book provides a unique insight into the beliefs and political ideology of the Ulster Defence Assocation (UDA) and the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF). Featuring interviews with key members of these paramilitary groups, many conducted inside the Maze prison, Colin Crawford presents a thorough analysis of Loyalism and the role that Loyalist paramilitary groups continue to play in Northern Ireland's troubles. He also provides an insider's account of the workings of state-sponsored terrorism.This book comes at a particularly challenging time for Loyalist politics, and for the UDA in particular. There have been several Loyalist feuds, and since the expulsion of Johnny Adair from the UDA in 2002 volunteers have turned upon each other -- these killings have made international headlines.Crawford explores these tensions and assesses the difficulties that the UDA faces in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement. He analyses the Ulster Democratic Party's failure to win seats in the 1998 elections, and he examines the conflict between those who are motivated by the profits of crime and drug trafficking, and those motivated by political ideals.The book makes disturbing and often heartbreaking reading, and it marks an important step forward in understanding the Loyalist position -- for it is only through improving our understanding of the experience of all citizens in Northern Ireland that lasting peace can be achieved.

>>17843039

>The Kincora Scandal: Political Cover-Up & Intrigue in Ulster by Chris Moore

>The Kincora scandal shocked Northern Ireland when it received media coverage in 1980. Since then there have been six enquiries of various kinds into the systematic sexual abuse of boys in public care in Kincora and other institutions, but none of them has silenced public concern. At the heart of the Kincora affair is the intrigue that surrounds one of the convicted sex abusers, William McGrath. A prominent Orangeman on an evangelical mission, McGrath, though never elected to public office, nevertheless exerted a powerful influence on the development of Unionism in the 197Os and 198Os as the IRA campaign of violence escalated. Using hitherto unpublished sources, The Kincora Scandal reveals that as an agent of the British intelligence service, MI5, McGrath unwittingly played a key role in the deliberate destabilisation of the Northern Ireland state, a policy that had the long-term aim of facilitating British withdrawal - the so-called 'doomsday' scenario. It also details how, because of this, McGrath's activities as a sex offender were covered up and two police investigations were obstructed by the British establishment.

>>17843049

>Kincora: Britain's Shame - Mountbatten, MI5, the Belfast Boys’ Home Sex Abuse Scandal and the British Cover Up by Chris Moore

>For over four decades the story of the extraordinary evil that occurred at the Kincora Boys’ Home in East Belfast in the 1970s and the shocking attempts by MI5 to cover it up have haunted our political and social terrain for decades. Award-winning former BBC journalist Chris Moore has been working on the story since it first emerged in 1980, and has uncovered a horrific catalogue of failed opportunities to put an end to the sadistic activities of the men who were running the home, in particular those of prominent Orangeman and MI5 source William McGrath. What has emerged over the course of Moore’ s investigation, in which he has gained exclusive access to witnesses, secret documents and whistleblowers within the British intelligence services, is that not only were the boys in Kincora systematically sexually abused, but that some were forced into a countrywide paedophile ring, whose members included Lord Louis Mountbatten. Moore also exposes MI5’ s attempts to cover up what actually happened and that the organisation knew as early as the 1970s that the boys in Kincora were being abused. This is an exposé of how the British state failed to protect some of its most vulnerable members.

>>17843053

>The Billy Boy: The Life and Death of LVF Leader Billy Wright by Chris Anderson

>A cult figure among loyalists, despised and feared by nationalists, Billy "King Rat" Wright is reputed to have been involved in a number of sectarian murders before he himself was shot dead by republican gunmen inside the Maze Prison in 1997. Wright became involved with loyalist paramilitaries at the age of 16, and in the early 1990s he emerged as the UVF commander in the Mid-Ulster area. The Billy Boy documents Wright's role in the Drumcree dispute of 1995-96 and his split from the UVF, recounting how he ignored both a death threat and an order to leave Northern Ireland, only to remain in Portadown and form the Loyalist Volunteer Force. It covers Wright's trial and subsequent imprisonment for a crime it has been claimed was set up by the State; recounts the circumstances of his killing inside a top-security prison; and investigates the allegations of State collusion in Wright's death. Terrifically gripping and often disturbing, The Billy Boy is an exhaustive account of a notorious figure whose life and death were surrounded by controversy and political debate.

>>17843060

>The Orange Order: A Contemporary Northern Irish History by Eric P. Kaufmann

>Based on unprecedented access to the Order's internal documents, this book provides the first systematic social history of the Orange Order - the Protestant association dedicated to maintaining the British connection in Northern Ireland.

>Kaufmann charts the Order's path from the peak of its influence, in the early 1960s, to its present-day crisis. Along the way, he sketches a portrait of many of Orangeism's leading figures, from ex-Prime Minister John Andrews to Ulster Unionist Party politicians like Martin Smyth, James Molyneaux, and David McNarry. Kaufmann also includes the highly revealing correspondence with adversaries such as Ian Paisley and David Trimble.

>Packed with analyses of mass-membership trends and attitudes, the book also takes care to tell the story of the Order from 'below' as well as from above. In the process, it argues that the traditional Unionism of West Ulster is giving way to the more militant Unionism of Antrim and Belfast which is winning the hearts of the younger generation in cities and towns throughout the province.

>>17843075

>Paisley: Religion and Politics in Northern Ireland by Steve Bruce

>The career of the Revd Ian Paisley raises vital questions about the links between religion and politics in the modern world. Paisley is unique in having founded his own church and party and led both to success, so that he effectively has a veto over political developments in Northern Ireland. Steve Bruce draws on over 20 years of close acquaintance with Paisley's people to describe and explain Paisleyism. In this clearly written account, Bruce charts Paisley's movement from the maverick fringes to the centre of Ulster politics and discusses in detail the changes in his party that accompanied its rise. At the heart of this account are vital questions for modern societies. How can religion and politics mix? Do different religions produce different sorts of politics? What is clear is that Paisley's people are not jihadis intent on imposing their religion on the unGodly. For all that religion plays a vital part in Paisley's personal political drive and explains some of his success, he plays by the rules of liberal democracy.

>Newly published in paperback with an afterword discussing the achievement of the devolved executive and Paisley's period as First Minister in the new Assembly.

>>17843093

>None Shall Divide Us by Michael Stone

>To Loyalists, Michael Stone is an idol and an icon. His name and face are painted on walls across Belfast, and his desire to remove Adams and McGuinness from the political spectrum has turned him into a local super-hero. A meticulous killing machine, he executed six men, whose deaths were claimed under different Loyalist groupings, and when justice finally caught up with him he was sentenced to 800 years in prison. Twelve years later, he left a free man, renounced terrorism, apologized for the suffering he had caused and said the fledgling peace process was the only way forward. This is his own true story.

>>17843099

>UDA: Inside The Heart Of The Loyalist Terror by Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack

>This is the first definitive history of the UDA and follows its trajectory from mass loyalist movement in the early 1970s to the lethal hotbed of feuding and criminality it is today. It includes the real Johnny Adair story a tale symptomatic of the essential fault line running through the UDA since its inception.Written by two distinguished journalists, The UDA is a work of rigorous research and analysis, and also a riveting yarn of sex, drugs, murder and mayhem.

>>17843109

>Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and 'C Company' by David Lister and Hugh Jordan

>The name Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair is synonymous with a killing spree by loyalist terrorists that took Northern Ireland to the brink of civil war. From humble beginnings as a rioter on Belfast's Shankill Road, Adair rose through the ranks of the outlawed Ulster Freedom Fighters to head its merciless killing machine, "C Company." Surrounded by a group of trusted friends, his reign of terror in the early 1990s claimed the lives of up to 40 Catholics, picked out at random as Adair's hitmen roamed Belfast. Mad Dog describes in graphic detail Adair's criminal empire and an egomaniac's bloody war against Catholics and anybody else who got in his way. Adair's friends and enemies talk for the first time about the murders he ordered, his sordid personal life, and his attempts to become Northern Ireland's supreme loyalist figurehead. Using sensational new material, the authors expose the mass murderers who did Adair's bidding and provide new insights into some of the biggest secrets of the Troubles.

>>17843119

The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism

>Covering Irish history from the beginnings of Irish Nationalism through 1973, Robert Kee's treatment ranges from the Protestant Plantations through Wolfe Tone and the Great Famine to the founding of the Fenian Movement and the Irish Free State. His authoritative and comprehensive history is masterly in its detail and judicious analysis. A classic in its field, this is essential reading for anyone attempting to understand the complex historical forces that have shaped Ireland.

>>17843146

>Nor Meekly Serve My Time: The H Block Struggle 1976-1981

>The story of one of the most remarkable prison,protests in history, told for the first time by, the prisoners themselves. The protest began when a new regime was imposed on political prisoners in the North of Ireland in 1976. For five years hundreds of Irish Republicans in Long Kesh prison endured deprivation and brutality, which culminated in a hunger strike resulting in the deaths of 10 men in 1981.

>>17843160

>Rebel Hearts: Journeys Within the IRA's Soul by Kevin Toolis

>For ten years Kevin Toolis investigated the lives of the IRA soldiers who wage a secret battle against the British State. His journeys took him from the back kitchens of Belfast, where men joked while making two-thousand-pound bombs, to prisons for interviews with men serving life sentences, and to the graveyards where mourners weep. Each chapter explores a world where history, faith, and human savagery determine life and death. At once moving and harrowing, Rebel Hearts is the most authoritative and insightful book ever written on the IRA.

>>17843165

>Stone Cold: The True Story of Michael Stone and the Milltown Massacre by Martin Dillon

>In March 1988 three unarmed members of an IRA active service unit were shot dead by SAS operatives in Gibraltar in a secret operation which became a political "cause celebre". At the funeral for the dead men at the Milltown Cemetery in their native Belfast, Michael Stone threw grenades and fired into the crowd of mourners, killing three men and wounding several others. He was captured, interrogated and confessed to a list of killings which have put him in the Maze Prison under a life sentence. Drawing on his conversations with Stone in prison and a network of informants right across the Irish political spectrum, Martin Dillon presents a portrait of a killer: charming, boastful, meticulous, sentimental and lethal. Dillon investigates his abandonment by his mother, his upbringing by Protestant relatives in Belfast, his wives and friends and his early involvment in street violence leading to his career as a freelance killer associated with many of Ulster's political or para-military organizations. A direct consequence of the Milltown Massacre was the killing of two British soldiers caught up in the funeral cortege for one of the Milltown dead - one of the most brutal instances of mob violence in recent Irish history. In this book Dillon makes a revelation about the two soldiers.

>>17843174

>Killing Rage by Eamon Collins and Mick McGovern

>This is an account of how an angry young man can cross the line that divides theoretical support for violence from a state of 'killing rage', in which the murder of neighbour becomes thinkable. Over 3000 people have died in Northern Ireland since 1969, and most of them have died at the hands of their neighbours. The intimacy of the Ulster conflict, what it means to carry out a political murder when in all probability the victim is personally known, or lives in a nearby street, is described accurately by an honest participant. The book does not attempt to soften the impact of the events it describes through euphemism or rhetoric. It is a truthful picture of the brutality and waste caused by the IRA's unwinnable campaign, and of its human consequences. It is also a self-portrait of the despair and disintegration, the hardening to conscience and grief, that accompany political violence.

>>17843180

>Death in the Fields: The IRA and East Tyrone by Jonathan Trigg

>The riveting story of the impact of the Troubles in East Tyrone as told by the people involved. Based on interviews with veterans from all sides, including former members of the security forces. A deep-dive into what the Troubles were like on the ground, by prolific and decorated military historian.

>>17843185

>Death in Derry: Martin McGuinness and the Derry IRA’s War Against the British by Jonathan Trigg

>When civil rights protests in the 1960s gave way to armed struggle, the Provisional IRA in Derry – both city and county – led the fight against the British security forces. In the city Martin McGuinness – a young butcher’s assistant from the Bogside – quickly rose through the ranks, launching a bombing campaign that reduced the city centre to rubble. In tandem, the IRA’s active service units fought the British Army in the streets and alleys of the Bogside, Creggan, Shantallow and the Waterside. Out in the townlands, a new generation from the county’s traditional republican families waged an equally ruthless war against their neighbours in the RUC and UDR. The Derry Brigade’s success would help propel McGuinness to the very top of the IRA’s Army Council.

>By the early 1980s the Derry Brigade appeared untouchable. However, in reality, Special Branch and British Intelligence had infiltrated it from top to bottom and almost destroyed the brigade. By the mid-1990s its war was all but over, its ranks decimated by death and incarceration. This is the story of that war told by those from all sides who survived it.

>>17843190

>Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike by David Beresford

>In 1981, ten men starved themselves to death inside the walls of Long Kesh prison in Belfast. While a stunned world watched and distraught family members kept bedside vigils, one "soldier" after another slowly went to his death in an attempt to make Margaret Thatcher's government recognize them as political prisoners rather than common criminals.

>Drawing extensively on secret IRA documents and letters from the prisoners smuggled out at the time, David Beresford tells the gripping story of these strikers and their devotion to the cause. An intensely human story, Ten Men Dead offers a searing portrait of strife-torn Ireland, of the IRA, and the passions -- on both sides -- that Republicanism arouses.

>>17843194

>The Northern Ireland Peace Process: From Armed Bombs to Brexit by Eamonn O'Kane

>This book offers a re-evaluation of the emergence, development and outcome of the peace process in Northern Ireland. Drawing on interviews with many of the key participants of the peace process, newly released archival material and the existing scholarship on the conflict, it explains the decisions that shaped the peace process in their proper context.

>O'Kane argues that although the outcome of the process can be seen as a success, it is not the outcome that was originally expected or intended by most of its participants. By tracing the process and highlighting the pragmatic decisions of the parties that shaped it the work explains how Northern Ireland moved from conflict to peace. The book concludes by examining what the implications of Brexit are for Northern Ireland’s hard-won peace and political stability.

>>17844000

>The Yank: The True Story of a Former US Marine in the Irish Republican Army by John Crawley

>The Irish "Troubles" were at a murderous fever pitch when John Crawley volunteered for the IRA. Bloody Friday, Bloody Sunday, the bombing of the British Houses of Parliament, and other deadly incidents had recently unfolded or were about to ... Civilian casualties were common as British soldiers, Republican militants (who wanted the UK out of Northern Ireland) and Unionist police and militants (who wanted to remain in the UK), engaged in gun battles and car bombing throughout Northern Ireland. The death toll numbered over 1,000.

>The IRA split over how to react between the old-line IRA, and the new Provisional IRA — the Provos, mostly impassioned young men who were not hesitant to resort to violence.

>In a powerful, brutally honest, no-holds-barred recounting of his experience, John Crawley details, first, the grueling challenges of his Marine Corps training, then how he put his hard-earned munitions and demolitions skills to use back in Ireland in service of the Provos. It is a story that will see him running guns with notorious American mobster — and secret IRA fundraiser — Whitey Bulger; running, under cover of night, from safe house to safe house in the Irish countryside, one step ahead of British troops; being captured, imprisoned, and being part of a mass escape attempt; fending off a recruitment offer from the CIA; and being one of the masterminds behind a campaign to take out London's electrical system.

>Along the way, Crawley is blisteringly candid about the memorable people he worked with, including behind-the-scenes portrayals of revered IRA leader Martin McGuinness, and of the psychopathic Whitey Bulger, as well as others in the Boston IRA support network. There are vivid portraits of colleagues and enemies, and Crawley is unflinching in his commentary on IRA leadership and their tactics, both military and political.

>>17844017

>On Bloody Sunday: A New History Of The Day And Its Aftermath – By The People Who Were There by Julieann Campbell

>In January 1972, a peaceful civil rights march in Northern Ireland ended in bloodshed. Troops from Britain's 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment opened fire on marchers, leaving 13 dead and 15 wounded. Seven of those killed were teenage boys. The day became known as 'Bloody Sunday'.

>The events occurred in broad daylight and in the full glare of the press. Within hours, the British military informed the world that they had won an 'IRA gun battle'. This became the official narrative for decades until a family-led campaign instigated one of the most complex inquiries in history.

>In 2010, the victims of Bloody Sunday were fully exonerated when Lord Saville found that the majority of the victims were either shot in the back as they ran away or were helping someone in need. The report made headlines all over the world.

>While many buried the trauma of that day, historian and campaigner Juliann Campbell - whose teenage uncle was the first to be killed that day - felt the need to keep recording these interviews, and collecting rare and unpublished accounts, aware of just how precious they were. Fifty years on, in this book, survivors, relatives, eyewitnesses and politicians, shine a light on the events of Bloody Sunday, together, for the first time.

>As they tell their stories, the tension, confusion and anger build with an awful power. ON BLOODY SUNDAY unfolds before us an extraordinary human drama, as we experience one of the darkest moments in modern history - and witness the true human cost of conflict.

>>17844029

>Four Shots in the Night: A True Story of Spies, Murder, and Justice in Northern Ireland by Henry Hemming

>Four Shots in the Night is the story of a political murder: the killing of an IRA member turned British informant.

>The search for justice for this one man's death—his body found in broad daylight, with tape over his eyes, an undisguised hit—would deliver more than the truth. It exposed his status as an informant and led to protests, campaigns, far-reaching changes to British law, a historic ruling from a senior judicial body, a ground-breaking police investigation, and bitter condemnation from a US Congressional commission. And there have been persistent rumors that one of the country’s most senior politicians, the Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness, might have been personally involved in this particular murder.

>Relying on archival research, interviews, and the findings of a new complete police investigation, Four Shots in the Night tells a riveting story not just of this murder but of his role in the decades-long conflict that defined him--the Troubles. And the questions it tackles are even larger: how did the Troubles really come to an end? Was it a feat of diplomatic negotiation, as we've been told--or did spies play the decisive role? And how far can, or should, a spy go, for the good of his country? Four Shots in the Night is a page-turner that will make you think.

>>17844043

>Troubled Geographies: A Spatial History of Religion and Society in Ireland

>Ireland's landscape is marked by fault lines of religious, ethnic, and political identity that have shaped its troubled history. Troubled Geographies maps this history by detailing the patterns of change in Ireland from 16th century attempts to "plant" areas of Ireland with loyal English Protestants to defend against threats posed by indigenous Catholics, through the violence of the latter part of the 20th century and the rise of the "Celtic Tiger." The book is concerned with how a geography laid down in the 16th and 17th centuries led to an amalgam based on religious belief, ethnic/national identity, and political conviction that continues to shape the geographies of modern Ireland. Troubled Geographies shows how changes in religious affiliation, identity, and territoriality have impacted Irish society during this period. It explores the response of society in general and religion in particular to major cultural shocks such as the Famine and to long term processes such as urbanization.

>>17844049

>Unionists, Loyalists, and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland by Lee A. Smithey

>In Northern Ireland, a once seemingly intractable conflict is in a state of transformation. Lee A. Smithey offers a grassroots view of that transformation, drawing on interviews, documentary evidence, and extensive field research. He offers essential models for how ethnic and communal-based conflicts can shift from violent confrontation toward peaceful co-existence.

>Smithey focuses particularly on Protestant unionists and loyalists in Northern Ireland, who maintain varying degrees of commitment to the Protestant faith, the Crown, and and Ulster / British identity. He argues that antagonistic collective identities in ethnopolitical conflict can become less polarizing as partisans adopt new conflict strategies and means of expressing identity. Consequently, the close relationship between collective identity and collective action is a crucial element of conflict transformation. Smithey closely examines attempts in Protestant/unionist/loyalist communities and organizations to develop more constructive means of expressing collective identity and pursuing political agendas that can help improve community relations. Key leaders and activists have begun to reframe shared narratives and identities, making possible community support for negotiations, demilitarization, and political cooperation, while also diminishing out-group polarization.

>As Smithey shows, this kind of shift in strategy and collective vision is the heart of conflict transformation, and the challenges and opportunities faced by grassroots unionists and loyalists in Northern Ireland can prove instructive for other regions of intractable conflict.

>>17844054

>Very British Rebels?: The Culture and Politics of Ulster Loyalism by James White McAuley

>Challenging traditional narrow views, this unique work proposes to rethink and reinterpret Ulster loyalism from the beginning of the "Troubles" to the present day, by tracing its religious, paramilitary, political, and community influences.

>The work examines the core values of loyalist communities, the roots of violence, and the shift toward peaceful coexistence with former enemies. Also discussed are the DUP's claims that it represents loyalism's "true voice" along with the complex and varying degrees of commitment to the Crown, the Protestant Faith, and the British governance of Northern Ireland. Lastly, it looks at how cultural expressions of loyalist identity, such as poetry or cartoons, are being used in the (re)construction of a loyalist memory.

>Written by a leading expert on Ulster loyalism, the work is based on extensive interviews with loyalists and loyalist literature to provide an inside account of the processes of loyalist identity formation and transformation. Drawing on political science, sociology and cultural studies, it will appeal to anyone interested in Irish politics as well as conflict and peace processes.

>>17844061

>Northern Protestants: An Unsettled People by Susan McKay

>"Northern Protestants is based on over sixty in-depth interviews with a wide range of northern Protestants, Susan McKay presents an uncompromising and clear-eyed examination of her own people - the Protestants of Northern Ireland."

>"For this updated edition Susan McKay has written a new introduction covering events since 2000. Her analysis of the continuing upheavals within the Protestant community and unionist politics is a timely contribution to current debates about the future of Northern Island."

>>17844067

>The Year of Chaos: Northern Ireland on the Brink of Civil War, 1971-72 by Malachi O'Doherty

>In the eleven months between August 1971 and July 1972, Northern Ireland experienced its worst year of violence. No future year of the Troubles experienced such death and destruction.

>The 'year of chaos' began with the introduction of internment of IRA suspects without trial, which created huge disaffection in the Catholic communities and provoked an escalation of violence. This led to the British government taking full control of Northern Ireland and negotiating directly with the IRA leadership. Operation Motorman, the invasion of barricaded no-go areas in Belfast and Derry, then dampened down the violence a year later.

>During this whole period, Malachi O'Doherty was a young reporter in Belfast, working in the city and returning home at night to a no-go area behind the barricades where the streets were patrolled by armed IRA men.

>Drawing on interviews, personal recollections and archival research, O'Doherty takes readers on a journey through the events of that terrible year - from the devastation of Bloody Sunday and Bloody Friday to the talks between leaders that failed to break the deadlock.

>>17844109

>Counterinsurgency and Collusion in Northern Ireland by Mark McGovern

>Collusion by British state forces in killings perpetrated by loyalist paramilitaries was a dubious hallmark of the ‘dirty war’ in the north of Ireland. Now, more than twenty years since the Good Friday Agreement, the story of collusion remains one of the most enduring and contentious legacies of the conflict, a shadow that trails British counterinsurgency to this day.

>Here Mark McGovern turns back the clock to the late 1980s and early ‘90s—the ‘endgame’ of the Troubles and a period defined by a rash of state-sanctioned paramilitary killings. Drawing on previously unpublished evidence, and original testimony of victims’ families and eyewitnesses, McGovern examines several dozen killings of republicans and their families and communities that took place in the Mid-Ulster area. Placing these accounts within a wider critical analysis of the nature of British counterinsurgency and the state use of agents and informers, McGovern paints a damning picture of covert, deniable, and unlawful violence.

>>17844119

>The Puppet Masters: How MI6 Masterminded Ireland's Deepest State Crisis by David Burke

>David Burke uncovers the clandestine activities of Patrick Crinnion, a Garda intelligence officer who secretly served MI6 during the early years of the Troubles. As the Garda Síochána launched a manhunt for the Chief-of-Staff of the IRA, Crinnion found himself playing a crucial role in the effort to track him down.

>Before his disappearance, Crinnion’s actions exposed a web of secrets including those of another British spy in the Irish police, damaging intelligence leaks, gunrunning by Irish politicians, and a cover-up related to the murder of a Garda.

>Burke reveals MI6’s shady dealings, from attempts to smear Irish politicians to plans for using criminals as assassins and the secret surveillance of a key IRA member.

>Crinnion fled into exile. The Puppet Masters not only reveals what became of him but also provides an insightful look into a turbulent period marked by covert operations, betrayal, and the power struggle that shaped modern Irish history.

>>17844127

>Belfast Punk and the Troubles, 1977-1986 by Fearghus Roulston

>Belfast punk and the Troubles is an oral history of the punk scene in Belfast from the mid-1970s to the mid-80s. The book explores what it was like to be a punk in a city shaped by the violence of the Troubles, and how this differed from being a punk elsewhere. It also asks what it means to have been a punk – how punk unravels as a thread throughout the lives of the people interviewed, and what that unravelling means in the context of post-peace-process Northern Ireland. In doing so, it suggests a critical understanding of sectarianism, subjectivity and memory politics in the North, and argues for the importance of placing punk within the segregated structures of everyday life described by the interviewees.

>Adopting an innovative oral history approach drawing on the work of Luisa Passerini and Alessandro Portelli, the book analyses a small number of oral history interviews with participants in granular detail. Outlining the historical context and the cultural memory of punk, the central chapters each delve into one or two interviews to draw out the affective, imaginative and political ways in which punks and former punks evoke their memories of taking part in the scene. Through this method, it analyses the punk scene as a structure of feeling shaped through the experience of growing up in wartime Belfast.

>Belfast punk and the Troubles is an intervention in Northern Irish historiography stressing the importance of history from below, and will be compelling reading for historians of Ireland and of punk, as well as those interested in innovative approaches to oral history.

>>17844138

>Northern Ireland, the BBC, and Censorship in Thatcher's Britain by Robert J. Savage

>This is a study of how the Northern Ireland conflict was presented to an increasingly global audience during the premiership of Britain's 'Iron Lady', Margaret Thatcher. It addresses the tensions that characterized the relationship between the broadcast media and the Thatcher Government throughout the 1980s. Robert J. Savage explores how that tension worked its way into decisions made by managers, editors, and reporters addressing a conflict that seemed insoluble.

>Margaret Thatcher mistrusted the broadcast media, especially the BBC, believing it had a left-wing bias that was hostile to her interests and policies. This was especially true of the broadcast media's reporting about Northern Ireland. She regarded investigative reporting that explored the roots of republican violence in the region or coverage critical of her government's initiatives as undermining the rule of law, and thereby providing terrorists with what she termed the 'oxygen of publicity'. She followed in the footsteps of the Labour Government that proceeded her by threatening and bullying both the BBC and IBA, promising that the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act would be deployed to punish journalists that came into contact with the IRA. Although both networks continued to offer compelling news and current affairs programming, the tactics of her government produced considerable success. Wary of direct government intervention, both networks encouraged a remarkable degree of self-censorship when addressing 'the Troubles'. Regardless, by 1988, the Thatcher Government, unhappy with criticism of its policies, took the extraordinary step of imposing formal censorship on the British broadcast media. The infamous 'broadcasting ban' lasted six years, successfully silencing the voices of Irish republicans while tarnishing the reputation of the United Kingdom as a leading global democracy.

>>17844162


>One Man's Terrorist: A Political History of the IRA by Daniel Finn

>The conflict in Northern Ireland was one of the most devastating in post-war Europe, claiming the lives of 3,500 people and injuring many more. This book is a riveting new history of the radical politics that drove a unique insurgency that emerged from the crucible of 1968. Based on extensive archival research, One Man’s Terrorist explores the relationship between the IRA, a clandestine army described as ‘one of the most ruthless and capable insurgent forces in modern history’, and the political movement that developed alongside it to challenge British rule. From Wilson and Heath to Thatcher and Blair, a generation of British politicians had to face an unprecedented subversive threat whose reach extended from West Belfast to Westminster.

>Finn shows how Republicans fought a war on several fronts, making use of every weapon available to achieve their goal of a united Ireland, from car bombs to election campaigns, street marches to hunger strikes. Though driven by an uncompromising revolutionary politics that blended militant nationalism with left-wing ideology, their movement was never monolithic, its history punctuated by splits and internal conflicts. The IRA’s war ultimately ended in stalemate, with the peace process of the 1990s and the Good Friday Agreement that has maintained an uneasy balance ever since.

>>17844168

>Undercover War: Britain's Special Forces and Their Secret Battle Against the IRA by Harry McCallion

>When British troops first deployed to Northern Ireland in 1969 to keep apart rioting factions of loyalists and nationalists, they could not have known that they were being drawn into the longest campaign in the British Army's history, a battle against the threat of a new rising force - the Provisional Irish Republican Army. While patrols, vehicle bombs and incendiary speeches are the defining memories of the Troubles, the real war was fought out of sight and out of mind. For thirty years, Britain's Special Forces waged a ferocious, secretive struggle against a ruthless and implacable enemy. This book is his blistering account of the history of Britain's war against the IRA between 1970 and 1998. From new insights into high-profile killings and riveting accounts of enemy contact, to revelations about clandestine missions and the strategies used in combating a merciless enemy, Undercover War is the definitive inside story of the battle against the IRA, one of the most dangerous and effective terrorist organisations in recent history.

>>17844177

>Double Agent: My Secret Life Undercover in the IRA by Kevin Fulton

>'"I am a British soldier," I told my reflection. "I am a British soldier and I'm saving lives. I'm saving lives. I'm a British soldier and I'm saving lives..."' Kevin Fulton was one of the British Army's most successful intelligence agents. Having been recruited to infiltrate the Provisional IRA at the height of The Troubles, he rose its ranks to an unprecedented level. Living and working undercover, he had no option other than to take part in heinous criminal activities, including the production of bombs which he knew would later kill. So highly was he valued by IRA leaders that he was promoted to serve in its infamous internal police - ironically, his job was now to root out and kill informers. Until one day in 1994, when it all went wrong. . . Fleeing Northern Ireland, Kevin was abandoned by the security services he had served so courageously and left to live as a fugitive. The life of a double agent requires constant vigilance, for danger is always just a heartbeat away. For a double agent within the highest ranks of the IRA, that danger was doubled. In this remarkable account, Kevin Fulton tells a truth that is as uncomfortable as it is gripping.

>>17842753
GOAT'd choice.

>>17844186

>Thatcher’s Spy: My Life as an MI5 Agent Inside Sinn Féin by Willie Carlin

>Early one morning in March 1985, as he climbed the six steps of Margaret Thatcher’s prime-ministerial jet on the runway of RAF Aldergrove, little did Willie Carlin know the role Freddie Scappaticci played in saving his life. So began the dramatic extraction of Margaret Thatcher’s key undercover agent in Sinn Fein—Willie Carlin, aka Agent 3007. For 11 years the former British soldier worked alongside former IRA commander Martin McGuinness in the republican movement’s political wing in Derry. He was MI5’s man at McGuinness’ side and gave the British State unprecedented insight into the IRA leader’s strategic thinking. Carlin worked with McGuinness to develop Sinn Fein’s election strategy after the 1981 hunger strike, and the MI5 and later FRU agent’s reports on McGuinness, Adams, and other republicans were read by the British Cabinet, including Margaret Thatcher herself. When Carlin’s cover was blown in mid-1985 thanks to one of his old MI5 handlers being jailed as a Soviet spy, Thatcher authorised the use of her jet to whisk him to safety. Incredibly, it was another British ‘super spy’ inside the IRA’s secretive counter-intelligence unit, the ‘nuttin’ squad,’ who saved Carlin’s life. The Derry man is perhaps the only person alive thanks to the information provided by the ‘jewel in the crown’ of British military intelligence—Freddie Scappaticci aka "Stakeknife." In Thatcher’s Spy, the Cold War meets Northern Ireland’s Dirty War in the remarkable real-life story of a deep under-cover British intelligence agent, a man now doomed forever to look over his shoulder. . .

Lance Corporal David James Cleary did nothing wrong.
Simple as.

>>17844218

>The Miami Showband Massacre: A Survivor's Search for the Truth by Stephen Travers

>In 'The Miami Showband Massacre', Stephen Travers remembers the highs of being in the most successful showband of the 1970s and how it all ended in a terrifying moment of death and destruction. But he also looks for answers as to why his friends - Tony Geraghty, Fran O'Toole and Brian McCoy - were killed.

>>17844230

>There Will Be Fire: Margaret Thatcher, the IRA, and Two Minutes That Changed History by Rory Carroll

>A bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army exploded at 2:54 a.m. on October 12, 1984. It was the last day of the Conservative Party Conference at the Grand Hotel in the coastal town of Brighton, England. Rooms were obliterated, dozens of people wounded, five killed. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was in her suite when the explosion occurred; had she been just a few feet in another direction, flying tiles and masonry would have sliced her to ribbons. As it was, she survived—and history changed.

>There Will Be Fire is the gripping story of how the IRA came astonishingly close to killing Thatcher, in the most spectacular attack ever linked to the Northern Ireland Troubles. Journalist Rory Carroll reveals the long road to Brighton, the hide-and-seek between the IRA and British security services, the planting of the bomb itself, and the painstaking search for clues and suspects afterward.

>In There Will Be Fire, Carroll draws on his own interviews and original reporting, reveals new information, and weaves together previously unconnected threads. There Will Be Fire is journalistic nonfiction that reads like a thriller, propelled by a countdown to detonation.

>>17844236

>We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland by Fintan O'Toole

>Fintan O’Toole was born in the year the revolution began. It was 1958, and the Irish government―in despair, because all the young people were leaving―opened the country to foreign investment and popular culture. So began a decades-long, ongoing experiment with Irish national identity. In We Don’t Know Ourselves, O’Toole, one of the Anglophone world’s most consummate stylists, weaves his own experiences into Irish social, cultural, and economic change, showing how Ireland, in just one lifetime, has gone from a reactionary “backwater” to an almost totally open society―perhaps the most astonishing national transformation in modern history.

>Born to a working-class family in the Dublin suburbs, O’Toole served as an altar boy and attended a Christian Brothers school, much as his forebears did. He was enthralled by American Westerns suddenly appearing on Irish television, which were not that far from his own experience, given that Ireland’s main export was beef and it was still not unknown for herds of cattle to clatter down Dublin’s streets. Yet the Westerns were a sign of what was to come. O’Toole narrates the once unthinkable collapse of the all-powerful Catholic Church, brought down by scandal and by the activism of ordinary Irish, women in particular. He relates the horrific violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which led most Irish to reject violent nationalism. In O’Toole’s telling, America became a lodestar, from John F. Kennedy’s 1963 visit, when the soon-to-be martyred American president was welcomed as a native son, to the emergence of the Irish technology sector in the late 1990s, driven by American corporations, which set Ireland on the path toward particular disaster during the 2008 financial crisis.

>>17844252

>From Civil Rights to Armalites: Derry and the Birth of the Irish Troubles by Kenneth A. Loparo

>From Civil Rights to Armalites traces and analyses the escalation of conflict in Northern Ireland from the first civil rights marches to the verge of full-scale civil war in 1972, focusing on the city of Derry. It explains how a peaceful civil rights campaign gave way to increasing violence, how the IRA became a major political force and how the British army became a major party to the conflict. It provides the essential context for understanding the events of Bloody Sunday and a new chapter brings significant new material to the public debate around the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

>>17844269

>Times of Troubles: Britain's War in Northern Ireland by by Andrew Sanders and Ian S. Wood

>When do 'troubles', riots and insurgency become war? How does a liberal state respond to an internal war within its own borders? How does it define the rules of engagement for its armed forces? These questions, amongst others, faced the British government in 1969, when it decided to send the British Army to the streets of Northern Ireland. This is the first academic study of the British Army in Northern Ireland, featuring Scottish, Welsh, Irish and English regiments. It investigates the complex experiences of soldiers during the often-controversial Operation Banner (1969-2007). The experiences of these soldiers raise many important and difficult questions on war and policy. Featuring key interviews with former soldiers, paramilitaries and Special Branch detectives, amongst other key actors, the authors attempt to answer these questions and enhance our knowledge of conflict resolution by providing a deep analysis of one of the most significant British military operations since the Second World War.

>>17844280

>The Irish War: The Hidden Conflict between the IRA and British Intelligence by Tony Geraghty

>In The Irish War military veteran and historian Tony Geraghty reveals the sinister patterns of action and reaction in this generations-old domestic conflict. Drawing on public and covert sources, as well as interviews with members of British Intelligence, the security forces, and the Irish Republican Army, he brings to light the disturbing inner workings of an organized terrorist group and its military opposition.

>>17844297

>Voices from the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland by Ed Moloney

>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.

>>17844302

>Whose Mission, Whose Orders?: British Civil-Military Command and Control in Northern Ireland, 1968-1974 by David A. Charters

>The 1998 Good Friday Agreement that ended the conflict in Northern Ireland left intriguing questions unanswered: who made the crucial decisions about the use of the British Army during the Troubles - the politicians or the generals? And how did these decisions shape the army’s operations on the ground? In Whose Mission, Whose Orders?, David Charters pulls back the curtain on secret debates between British politicians and generals, as each struggled to assert their control over army operations. Consulting original sources, Charters examines the roles played by politicians, generals, and senior civil servants in the initial deployment of troops in 1969, the internment operation, the removal of the “no-go” areas, and the Ulster Workers' Council general strike. The case studies highlight the army’s dualistic character as both a professional force and a skilled political player. Despite its political function, Charters argues, politicians did not always listen to the army’s military advice, leading to unsound decisions that aggravated and prolonged the unrest. Illustrating the complex and dynamic balance of civil and military objectives that informed security policy and operations during the conflict in Northern Ireland, Whose Mission, Whose Orders? offers new perspectives on command and control in unconventional warfare.

>>17844314

>The Long Road to Peace in Northern Ireland: Peace Lectures from the Institute of Irish Studies at Liverpool University

>The best-selling first edition of The Long Road to Peace in Northern Ireland included essays from Senator George J. Mitchell, Sir David Goodall, Sir George Quigley, Lord Owen and Niall O’Dowd among others, and demonstrated the evolution of peace in Ireland, culminating in the Good Friday Agreement. Now Marianne Elliott, one of the world’s leading historians of Ireland, has updated the book and commissioned new essays to ensure that this vital resource for students, scholars, politicians and the interested general reader continues to illuminate the peace process through the words of some of its pivotal figures. The essays all relate to the nature of peacemaking as a process rather than an event signalled by the signing of an agreement. The significant role of ‘third party’ diplomacy is touched on by many contributors, as is the need for pragmatism, compromise, and a recognition that it is those people at the polar extremes of any dispute that have to be drawn in if a lasting agreement is to be achieved.

>>17844325

>The Impact of the Troubles on the Republic of Ireland, 1968–79 by Brian Hanley

>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.

>>17844337


>The Road to Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London by Steven P. Moysey

>The Road to Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London is the highly detailed account and analysis of law enforcement negotiation lessons learned from the infamous hostage standoff between the London Metropolitan Police (the Met) and four members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the winter of 1975. With eye-witness and first-hand testimony, this book examines the events leading up to the clash and their political context as well as how both sides handled the hostage situation and the strategies and tactics used by the police to safely diffuse the volatile situation.

>Comprehensive and readable, The Road to Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London looks at not only the six days making up the standoff but places the confrontation in unique historical context by giving a detailed summary of IRA activity in London in the years leading up to the siege. In addition, this vital study explores the aftershocks arising from the apprehension of the IRA team as well as the hostage negotiation lessons learned in the conflict. This useful resource also features a thorough bibliography and list of electronic resources.

>The Road to Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London is a useful resource for practicing law enforcement negotiating teams and professionals; history, sociology, and social psychology students and educators; and general readers as well.

>>17844342

>Forever Lost, Forever Gone by Paddy Joe Hill

>In 1974 Paddy Joe Hill was charged alongside five other men with the biggest mass murder on the British mainland - the Birmingham pub bombings. Arrested and beaten by members of the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad, Hill was condemned by false scientific evidence. He was deprived of his freedom for 16 years, three months and 23 days. Paddy Joe rebelled against the system from the outset, enduring frequent spells in solitary confinement as the authorities tried to keep him down. With his wife and family suffering on the outside, Paddy Joe campaigned obsessively against the convictions - and gradually the world started to listen. After the nail-biting appeals and the elation of at last regaining his freedom, he was to face one of the toughest challenges of all - rebuilding his life in a world he could barely recognize.

>>17844348

>Bear in Mind These Dead by Susan McKay

>Nearly 4,000 people were killed over the thirty or so years of the Northern Irish Troubles. And the killings were as intimate as they were brutal. Neighbours murdered neighbours. Susan McKay's book explores the difficult legacy of this conflict for families, friends and communities. By interviewing those who loved the missing and the dead, as well as some who narrowly survived, McKay gives a voice to those who are too often overlooked in the political histories. Old enemies are now in government together in Belfast, and the killing has all but stopped, but peace can only endure if the dead can finally be laid to rest. "Bear in Mind These Dead" is a moving and important contribution to that process.

Absolutely great list. I wouldn't say people need to read all of these, but you've done the wonderful work of giving context to each.

I would add only that people should utilise
>republicanarchive.com
because it's a collection of hundreds of primary sources from specifically Irish nationalism and Republicanism.

Things like
>autobiographies from IRA chiefs of staff
>republican press/newspapers
>international booklets or newspapers about the troubles from france, germany, etc
>rare or lesser seen texts on people or topics not often covered

Sadly, to my knowledge no Loyalist/Unionist equivilant exists.
>>17844356
McKay's books on "Northern Protestants" are both great too. Her interview with billy wright was very cool to read about

>>17844356

>Screening Ulster: Cinema and the Unionists by Richard Gallagher

>This book presents extensive research into the cinematic representation of the British-identifying Protestant, unionist and loyalist community in Northern Ireland and is the first time such comprehensive analysis has been produced. Gallagher’s research traces the history of the community’s representation in cinema from the emergence of depictions of both nationalist and unionist communities in social-realist dramas in 1980s British and Irish cinema to today, through periods such as those focused on violent paramilitaries in the 1990s and irreverent comedy after the Northern Ireland peace process. The book addresses the perception that the Irish nationalist community has been depicted more frequently and favourably than unionism in films about the period of conflict known as “The Troubles”. Often argued to be the result of an Irish nationalist bias within Hollywood, Gallagher argues that there are other inherent and systemic reasons for this cinematic deficit.

>>17844363


>Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Party and the Northern Ireland Conflict, 1975-1990 by Stephen Kelly

>The first woman elected to lead a major Western power and the longest serving British prime minister for 150 years, Margaret Thatcher is arguably one the most dominant and divisive forces in 20th-century British politics. Yet there has been no overarching exploration of the development of Thatcher's views towards Northern Ireland from her appointment as Conservative Party leader in 1975 until her forced retirement in 1990. In this original and much-needed study, Stephen Kelly rectifies this.

>From Thatcher's 'no surrender' attitude to the Republican hunger strikes to her nurturing role in the early stages of the Northern Ireland peace process, Kelly traces the evolutionary and sometimes contradictory nature of Thatcher's approach to Northern Ireland. In doing so, this book reflects afresh on the political relationship between Britain and Ireland in the late-20th century.

>An engaging and nuanced analysis of previously neglected archival and reported sources, Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Party and the Northern Ireland Conflict, 1975-1990 is a vital resource for those interested in Thatcherism, Anglo-Irish relations, and 20th-century British political history more broadly.

>>17844369

>Operation Demetrius and its aftermath: A new history of the use of internment without trial in Northern Ireland 1971–75 by Martin J. McCleery

>This book examines the use of internment without trial in Northern Ireland between 1971 and 1975. This research provides a more comprehensive account of internment and assesses previously unexplored aspects of its use. The book considers the high politics and intelligence surrounding the introduction of internment and in doing so accepted narratives regarding the measure are challenged. The book also highlights long-term and short-term consequences which developed from the internment period; some of which have not been given adequate consideration before. In addition this book traces the evolution of ‘The Troubles’ outside of Belfast and Derry/Londonderry between 1970 and 1972. It is argued that the development of the dynamics of the conflict across the whole of Northern Ireland was certainly more gradual and possibly less inevitable than has been previously identified.

>>17844375

>Ruairí Ó Brádaigh: The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary by Robert W. White

>At his death in 2013, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh remained a divisive and influential figure in Irish politics and the Irish Republican movement. He was the first person to serve as chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army, as president of the political party Sinn Féin, and to have been elected, as an abstentionist, to the Dublin parliament. He was a prominent, uncompromising, and articulate spokesperson of those Irish Republicans who questioned the peace process in Northern Ireland. His concern was rooted in his analysis of Irish history and his belief that the peace process would not achieve peace. He believed that it would support the continued partition of Ireland and result in continued, inevitable, conflict.

>The child of Irish Republican veterans, Ó Brádaigh led IRA raids, was arrested and interned, escaped and lived "on the run," and even spent a period of time on a hunger strike. Because he was an effective spokesman for the Irish Republican cause, he was at different times excluded from Northern Ireland, Britain, the United States, and Canada. He was also a key figure in the secret negotiation of a bilateral IRA-British truce in the mid-1970s.

>In a brief afterword for this new edition, author Robert W. White addresses Ó Brádaigh's continuing influence on the Irish Republican Movement, including the ongoing "dissident" campaign. Whether for good or bad, this ongoing dissident activity is a part of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh's enduring legacy.

>>17844378

>Deniable Contact: Back-Channel Negotiation in Northern Ireland by Niall Ó Dochartaigh

>Deniable Contact provides the first full-length study of the secret negotiations and back-channels that were used in repeated efforts to end the Northern Ireland conflict. The analysis is founded on a rich store of historical evidence, including the private papers of key Irish Republican leaders, recently released papers from national archives in Dublin and London, and the papers of Brendan Duddy, the intermediary who acted as the primary contact between the IRA and the British government on several occasions over a span of two decades, including papers that have not yet been made publicly available. This documentary evidence, combined with original interviews with politicians, mediators, civil servants, and Republicans, allows a vivid picture to emerge of the complex maneuvering at this intersection.

>Deniable Contact offers a textured account that extends our understanding of the distinctive dynamics of negotiations conducted in secret and the conditions conducive to the negotiated settlement of conflict. It disrupts and challenges some conventional notions about the conflict in Northern Ireland, offering a fresh analysis of the political dynamics and the intra-party struggles that sustained violent conflict and delayed settlement for so long. It draws on theories of negotiation and mediation to understand why efforts to end the conflict through back-channel negotiations repeatedly failed before finally succeeding in the 1990s. It challenges the view that the conflict persisted because of irreconcilable political ideologies and argues that the parties to conflict were much more open to compromise than the often-intransigent public rhetoric suggested

>>17844383

>The Maze Prison: A Hidden Story of Chaos, Anarchy and Politics by Tom Murtagh OBE

>The Maze Prison shows how an establishment built to hold those involved in terrorism, atrocities, murder and allied crimes became a pawn in the partisan conflict that was Northern Ireland. There followed a breakdown of norms, values and control as the last of these shifted from Governors to Ministers, outside officials and even prisoners. This led to the (often random) killing of prison officers and countless allegations, denials and obfuscations, as Prison Rules came into conflict with claims to be treated as prisoners-of-war or be given Special Category status. A social document par excellence, this stark slant on The Troubles and Peace Process cuts through the propaganda and base politics to reveal the truth about the H-Blocks, hunger-strikes, escapes and power struggles. Based on actual records and personal accounts, it challenges myths and legends to warn how easily a community can descend into what the author calls anomie. An invaluable record of 'One of the most dangerous prisons in the world'.

>>17844390

>Killing Thatcher: The IRA, the Manhunt and the Long War on the Crown by Rory Carroll

>Killing Thatcher is the gripping account of how the IRA came astonishingly close to killing Margaret Thatcher and to wiping out the British Cabinet – an extraordinary assassination attempt linked to the Northern Ireland Troubles and the most daring conspiracy against the Crown since the Gunpowder Plot.

>In this fascinating and compelling book, veteran journalist Rory Carroll retraces the road to the infamous Brighton bombing in 1984 – an incident that shaped the political landscape in the UK for decades to come. He begins with the infamous execution of Lord Mountbatten in 1979 – for which the IRA took full responsibility – before tracing the rise of Margaret Thatcher, her response to the ‘Troubles’ in Ireland and the chain of events that culminated in the hunger strikes of 1981 and the death of 10 republican prisoners, including Bobby Sands. From that moment on Thatcher became an enemy of the IRA – and the organisation swore revenge.

>Opening with a brilliantly-paced prologue that introduces bomber Patrick Magee in the build up to the incident, Carroll sets out to deftly explore the intrigue before and after the assassination attempt – with the story spanning three continents, from pubs and palaces, safe houses and interrogation rooms, hotels and barracks. On one side, an elite IRA team aided by a renegade priest, US-raised funds and Libya’s Qaddafi and on the other, intelligence officers, police detectives, informers and bomb disposal officers. An exciting narrative that blends true crime with political history, this is the first major book to investigate the Brighton attack.

>>17844396

>Northern Ireland: The Fragile Peace by Feargal Cochrane

>After two decades of relative peace following the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, the Brexit referendum in 2016 reopened the Northern Ireland question. In this thoughtful and engaging book, Feargal Cochrane considers the region’s troubled history from the struggle for Irish independence in the nineteenth century to the present. New chapters explain the reasons for the suspension of devolved government at Stormont in 2017 and its restoration in 2020 as well as the consequences for Northern Ireland of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. Providing a complete account of the province’s hundred-year history, this book is essential reading to understand the present dimensions of the Northern Irish conflict.

>>17844402

>Big Boys' Rules: The SAS and the Secret Struggle Against the IRA by Mark Urban

>In this book, defence specialist and war correspondent Mark Urban explores covert operations against the IRA from the mid-1970s to the Loughgall shooting in 1987. Drawing on interviews with people who have served at the heart of intelligence and special operations in Ulster, as well as with members of paramilitary groups, this book examines the roles of the army, the police and special branch, as well as both MI5 and MI6. The book also looks at the shoot to kill allegations, and records members of the security forces describing the deliberate deception of the press and courts in Ulster. The author also reveals many details including the events which lead up to the killing of eight IRA members in May 1987 in the village of Loughgall.

>>17844410

>The Trigger Men: Assassins and Terror Bosses in the Ireland Conflict by Martin Dillon

>In The Trigger Men, bestselling author Martin Dillon delves into the dark and sinister world of Irish terrorism and counter-terrorism. Over three decades he has interviewed and investigated some of the most professional, dangerous and ruthless killers in Ireland. Now Dillon explores their personalities, motivations and bizarre crimes.Many of Ireland's assassins learned their trade in fields and on hillsides in remote parts of Ireland, while others were trained in the Middle East or with Basque separatist terrorists in Spain. Some were one-target-one-shot killers, like the sniper who terrorised the inhabitants of Washington State in the autumn of 2002, while others were bombers skilled in designing the most sophisticated explosive devices and booby traps. Another more powerful group of 'trigger men' were the influential figures in the shadows, who were experts in motivating the killers under their control. All of these men, whether they squeezed the trigger on a high-powered rifle, set the timer on a bomb or used their authority to send others out to commit horrific and unspeakable acts of cruelty, are featured in this book. The Trigger Men takes the reader inside the labyrinthine world of terrorist cells and highly classified counter-terrorism units of British Military Intelligence. The individual stories are described in gripping, unflinching detail and show how the terrorists carried out their ghastly work. Dillon also explores the ideology of the cult of the gunmen and the greed and hatred that motivated assassins in their killing sprees. There are penetrating insights into the mindset of the most infamous assassins: their social and historical conditioning, their callousness......

>>17844414

>Air War Northern Ireland: Britain's Air Arms and the 'Bandit Country' of South Armagh, Operation Banner 1969–2007 by Steven Taylor

>Famously dubbed 'Bandit Country' by a UK government minister in 1975, South Armagh was considered the most dangerous part of Northern Ireland for the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary during the years of violence known as the 'Troubles' that engulfed the province in the last three decades of the twentieth century.

>This was also true for the helicopter crews of the RAF, Royal Navy and Army Air Corps who served there. Throughout the Troubles the Provisional IRA's feared South Armagh brigade waged a relentless campaign against military aircraft operating in the region, where the threat posed by roadside bombs made the security forces highly dependent on helicopters to conduct day-to-day operations.

>From pot-shot attacks with Second World War-era rifles in the early days of the conflict to large scale, highly coordinated ambushes by PIRA active service units equipped with heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and even shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), the threat to British air operations by the late 1980s led to the arming of helicopters operating in the border regions of Northern Ireland.

>Drawing on a wide range of sources, including official records and the accounts of aircrew, this book tells the little-known story of the battle for control of the skies over Northern Ireland's 'Bandit Country'.

>>17844419

>IRA: The Bombs and the Bullets: A History of Deadly Ingenuity by A.R. Oppenheimer

>As a leading expert on non-conventional weapons and explosives, the author focuses on the bombs and explosives and shows how the IRA became the most adept and experienced insurgency group the world has ever seen through their bombing expertise and how - after generations of conflict - it all came to an end. The book is a comprehensive account of more than 150 years of Irish republican strategic, tactical, and operational details and analysis covering the IRA's mission, doctrine, targeting, and acquisition of weapons and explosives. Oppenheimer also colourfully presents the story behind the bombs; those who built and deployed them, those who had to deal with and dismantle them, and those who suffered or died from them. He analyses where, how, and why the IRA's bombs were built, targeted and deployed and explores what the IRA was hoping to accomplish in its unrivalled campaign of violence and insurgency through covert acquisition, training, intelligence and counter-intelligence. The book focuses entirely on the IRA's bombing campaign - beginning with the Fenian 'Dynamiters' in the 19th century up to the decommissioning of an arsenal big enough to arm several battalions - which included an entire home-crafted missile system, an unsurpassed range of improvised explosive devices, and enough explosives to blow up several urban centres. The author scrutinises the level of improvisation in what became the hallmark of the Provisional IRA in its pioneering IED timing, delay and disguise technologies. He follows the arms race it carried on with the British Army and security services in a Long War of Mutual Assured Disruption. Oppenheimer fully describes and assesses the impact of the pre-1970s bombing campaigns in Northern Ireland and England to the evolution of strategies and tactics.

>>17844358
Thank you!

I actually already posted the Northern Protestant book here>>17844067

>>17844423

>Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland by Anne Cadwallader

>Over 120 people were killed by a loyalist gang operating in mid-Ulster and Cadwallader has created a convincing argument that collusion with certain elements of the security forces was crucial in the committing of these crimes and the lack of proper investigation into many of these crimes'' - The Dublin ReaderFarmers, shopkeepers, publicans and businessmen were slaughtered in a bloody decade of bombings and shootings in the counties of Tyrone and Armagh in the 1970s. Four families each lost three relatives; in other cases, children were left orphaned after both parents were murdered. For years, there were claims that loyalists were helped and guided by the RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment members. But, until now, there was no proof. Drawing on 15 years of research, and using forensic and ballistic information never before published, this book includes official documents showing that the highest in the land knew of the collusion and names those whose fingers were on the trigger and who detonated the bombs. It draws on previously unpublished reports written by the PSNI''s own Historical Enquiries Team. It also includes heartbreaking interviews with the bereaved families whose lives were shattered by this cold and calculated campaign.

>>17844467
You read the next one (picrel)? Also good. Less /his/, but very good at articulating how retarded Unionism now.

It was panned by the usual suspects because if you are an Ulster Unionist, reading it is a massive blackpill. I expect a lot of books like it to come out in future.

>>17844587
No, I haven't read that one yet

>>17844474

>Ireland, Colonialism, and the Unfinished Revolution by Robbie McVeigh and Bill Rolston

>A groundbreaking examination of the colonial legacy and future of Ireland, showing how Ireland’s story is linked to and informs anti-imperialism around the world.

>Colonialism is at the heart of making sense of Irish history and contemporary politics across the island of Ireland. And as Robbie McVeigh and Bill Rolston argue, Ireland’s experience is central to understanding the history of colonization and anti-colonial politics throughout the world. Part history, part analysis, Ireland, Colonialism, and the Unfinished Revolution charts the centuries of Irish colonial history, from England’s proto-imperial engagement with Ireland in 1155 to the Union in 1801, and the subsequent struggles for Irish independence and the legacies of partition from 1921.

>A century later, the plate tectonics of Irishness are shifting once again. The Union is in crisis and alternatives to partition are being seriously considered outside the Republican tradition for the first time in generations. These significant structural changes suggest that the coming times might finally see the completion of the decolonization project – the finishing of the revolution. In the words of the revolutionary Pádraig Pearse: Anois ar theacht an tSamhraidh – now the summer is coming.

>>17845469

>A Treatise on Northern Ireland (3 volumes) by Brendan O'Leary

>The definitive account of the political history of Northern Ireland.

>Traces the entire political narrative of historic Ulster to current Northern Ireland.

>The magnum opus of the world's leading political scientist of the topic.

>>17845478

>War and an Irish Town by Eamonn McCann

>Eamonn McCann's account of what it is like to grow up a Catholic in a Northern Irish ghetto was first published in 1974. It quickly became a recognised as a classic account of the feelings generated by British rule. The author was at the centre of events in Derry which first brought Northern Ireland to world attention.

>He witnessed the gradual transformation of the civil rights movement from a mild campaign for 'British Democracy' to an all-out military assault on the British state. This new edition updates the last edition (1980) with an additional introduction covering the last thirteen years.

>War and an Irish Town is a trenchant, powerful narrative which reaches an unequivocal conclusion: 'There can be no internal solution to the Northern Ireland problem. The existence of the northern state is the problem'.

>>17842657 (OP)

I call Ireland reddit island, literally the most boring place on the planet.

Literally nothing about it's milennia of history, people or culture interest me yet this board is simply obsessed with it, and despite being on the surface level uninteresting the more people yap about it and spam irish shit I've found the more you know and learn about it it's the LEAST interesting place in the universe, this is a place without a language, culture or race, hell despite being in the top 20 islands in the world unlike every other island ever it has no endemic lifeforms, no plant or animal unique to it ever evolved in it's billions of years of existance.

Ireland proves intelligent design because only through an omnipotent creator could such a boring worthless sleep inducing piece of shit exist, random chance in a careless unthinking meaningless atheist universe would have surely even by accident given earth's tumor something, ANYTHING of note.

>>17845489
irrefutable im afraid

>>17845484

>Children of the Troubles: The Untold Story of the Children Killed in the Northern Ireland Conflict by Joe Duffy and Freya McClements

>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.

>>17845510

>Nothing But an Unfinished Song: The Life and Times of Bobby Sands by Denis O'Hearn

>Bobby Sands was twenty seven years old when he died. He spent almost nine years of his life in prison because of his activities as a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). When he died on 5 May 1981, on the sixty-sixth day of his hunger strike against repressive prison conditions in Northern Ireland's H Block prisons, parliaments across the world stopped for a minute silence in his honor. Nelson Mandela followed Sands' example and led a similar hunger strike in South Africa, and Fidel Castro compared his suffering to that of Jesus. Bobby Sand's remarkable life and death have made him an "Irish Che Guevara." He is an enduring figure of resistance whose life has been an inspiration to millions around the world. In Hollywood, actors like Sean Penn, Mickey Rourke and Brad Pitt have flirted with a biopic of his life. But until the publication of Nothing But an Unfinished Song, no book has adequately explored the motivation of the hunger strikers, nor recreated this period of history from within the prison cell. Denis O'Hearn's powerful biography, with new material based on primary research and interviews, illuminates for the first time this enigmatic, controversial and heroic figure.

>>17845511

>Gunrunners: The Covert Arms Trail to Ireland by Sean Boyne

>Sean Boyne, an expert on defence and arms trafficking gives us a fascinating but disturbing insight into the shadowy world of arms dealers, spies and moles.

>With interviews with the dealers, agents and traffickers involved in the movement of huge quantities of arms into Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s, Sean Boyne exposes many of the little-known aspects of this part of Irish history, such as the IRA's connections to the KGB and Libya.

>Fully illustrated, with high quality photographs and graphs throughout, Gunrunners lays bare the hidden world of some of the most dangerous people who played a part in this often misunderstood part of Irish history.

>>17845530

>The Padre: The True Story of the Irish Priest who Armed the IRA with Gaddafi’s Money by Jennifer O'Leary

>For almost two decades, Father Patrick Ryan evaded intelligence agencies across Europe and was, for a time, one of the most wanted men in Britain. In The Padre, award-winning investigative journalist Jennifer O’Leary exposes the exploits of this notorious former Irish priest and active IRA supporter. Revealing sensational details divulged to her during exclusive secret meetings with Ryan, the book lifts the lid on the true extent of the priest’s involvement with the IRA and its campaign of terror across Europe, Britain and Ireland – from being a trusted link between the regime of Muammar Gaddafi and the IRA, to his involvement in improving IRA explosive devices, which made possible the almost successful assassination attempt on Margaret Thatcher and her Cabinet in Brighton. The Padre tells the truly remarkable story of this man of the cloth, who, decades on, is still unrepentant about his ruthless zealotry in pursuit of money, weapons and assistance for the IRA’s violence. Indeed, his one regret is that he wasn’t even more effective.

>>17845546

>The Next One Is for You: A True Story of Guns, Country, and the IRA’s Secret American Army by Ali Watkins

>Northern Ireland, 1975. Violence has erupted on the streets of Belfast. After years as a sleepy, guerilla army, the IRA is clashing with Loyalist gangs and heavily armed British soldiers. But the Troubles have spilled beyond the small island: An ocean away, in the heart of Philadelphia’s Irish enclave, a teenage girl finds a letter in her mailbox. Inside is a bullet, and the message is clear: The next one is for you or your family.

>As celebrated New York Times reporter Ali Watkins reveals in this exquisitely reported nonfiction thriller, the conflict in Northern Ireland might have gone very differently had it not been for a small, ragtag band of carpenters, family men, and fugitives in the United States. The Philadelphia Five, as they came to be known, supplied the Irish Republican Army at its moment of greatest need, bolstering the fight for a united Ireland but fueling the Troubles at an untold cost. This small group of Irish nationalists smuggled hundreds of rifles, rocket launchers, explosives, and armor-piercing bullets across the Atlantic Ocean and into Northern Ireland. Whether they were skimming money from innocuous-seeming charities, coolly slipping weapons into hidden compartments of vans and houses, or scouring local graveyards for the names of dead Irishmen to use on federal firearm forms, the gunrunners approached their mission—to unite Ireland under one flag, by any means necessary—with ruthless poise, even as European and American investigators closed in, members of their own movement began to turn on them, and bodies stacked up on all sides.

>A gripping tale of crime, rebellion, and the hazy line between them, The Next One Is for You is the definitive account of America’s hand in the Troubles—a conflict whose resonance is still felt today, in the United States and Ireland alike.

>>17845556


>Before the Dawn: An Autobiography by Gerry Adams

>In this fascinating memoir of his early life, Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Féin, describes the development of the modern “Troubles’’ in the North of Ireland, his experiences during that period, including secret talks with the British government and imprisonment, his leadership role in Sinn Féin, and the tragic hunger strike by imprisoned IRA prisoners in 1981. Born in 1948, Adams vividly recalls growing up in the working-class Ballymurphy district of West Belfast, where he became involved in the civil rights campaign in the late 1960s and was active in campaigns around issues of housing, unemployment, and civil rights. The unionist regime, which had been in interrupted power for 50 years, reacted violently to the protests, and the situation exploded into conflict. Adams recounts his growing radicalization, his work as a Sinn Féin activist and leader, his relationship with the IRA, and the British use of secret courts to condemn republicans. Adams was a political prisoner. He was arrested many times and recounts his torture. He spent a total of five years in the notorious Long Kesh prison camp. First as an internee, held without charge, and then as a sentenced prisoner after he made two failed attempts to escape. Adams chronicles the dramatic hunger strikes of Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh, and others in 1980–81 which saw ten men die. Though he opposed the hunger strike Adams was instrumental in organizing the mass campaign in support of the hunger strikers which saw Bobby Sands elected as a member of the British Parliament and Ciaran Doherty and Kevin Agnew elected to the Irish Parliament. Before the Dawn is an engaging and revealing self-portrait that is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand modern Ireland.

>>17845586

>Fifty Years On: The Troubles and the Struggle for Change in Northern Ireland by Malachi O'Doherty

>August 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of an eruption of armed violence that traumatised Northern Ireland and transformed a period of street protest over civil rights into decades of paramilitary warfare by republicans and loyalists, the Troubles. One night of street gun battles led to the British army being ordered in to keep the peace. Belfast would look like a battlefield for a whole generation growing up there.

>In this evocative memoir, Malachi O'Doherty recounts his experiences of living through the three decades of the Troubles and the subsequent peace process. Incorporating interviews with political, professional and paramilitary figures, he draws a profile of an era that produced violent trauma, comparing and contrasting it with today and asks how frail is the current peace as Brexit approaches, politics are deadlocked and violence is simmering in both republican and loyalist camps.

>>17845599

>Reporting the Troubles: Journalists Tell their Stories of the Northern Ireland conflict

>In Reporting the Troubles sixty-eight renowned journalists tell their stories of working in Northern Ireland during the Troubles – the victims that they have never forgotten, the events that have never left them, and the lasting impact of the experience of working through those years.

>The result is a compelling account of one of the most turbulent periods in recent history, told by the journalists who reported on it. Beginning in 1968 with an eyewitness report of the day that civil rights protestors clashed with the police in Derry, the journalists give candid accounts of the years that followed – arriving on the scene of major atrocities; knocking on the doors of bereaved relatives; maintaining objectivity in the face of threats from paramilitaries and pressure from the state; and always the absolute commitment to telling the truth.

>This is a landmark book – a history of the Troubles told by the journalists who were on the ground from the beginning and including many of the biggest names in journalism from the last fifty years. Reporting the Troubles is a remarkable act of remembrance that is raw, thought provoking and profoundly moving.

>>17845604

>Anatomy of a Killing: Life and Death on a Divided Island by Ian Cobain

>The untold story of an IRA unit, and a killing that has echoed across the decade.

>On the morning of Saturday 22nd April 1978, members of an Active Service Unit of the IRA hijacked a car and crossed the countryside to the town of Lisburn. Within an hour, they had killed an off-duty policeman in front of his young son.

>In Anatomy of a Killing, award-winning journalist Ian Cobain documents the hours leading up to the killing, and the months and years of violence, attrition and rebellion surrounding it. Drawing on interviews with those most closely involved, as well as court files, police notes, military intelligence reports, IRA strategy papers, memoirs and government records, this is a unique perspective on the Troubles, and a revelatory work of investigative journalism.

>>17845609

>Black Magic and Bogeymen: Fear, Rumour and Popular Belief in the North of Ireland 1972-74 by Richard Jenkins

>This book gives insight into a particularly grim period during the early 1970s in Northern Ireland using an extremely unusual episode—the black magic rumors—as a privileged window onto a world that may now be behind us, but which continues to fascinate many readers. Providing a fascinating insight into some of the problems and procedures of social history, the author also demonstrates that phenomena like the black magic rumors cannot be understood without taking a multidisciplinary approach, taking in perspectives and comparative evidence from anthropology, sociology, folklore and media studies.

>>17845614

>Who Framed Colin Wallace? by Paul Foot

>Colin Wallace claims he was discharged from the British army for his refusal to take part in a dirty tricks campaign orchestrated by MI5 in Northern Ireland. He was later jailed for the murder of a friend, but has maintained his innocence. The question is how far was MI5 involved?

>>17845618


>Burnt Out: How 'the Troubles' Began by Michael McCann

>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’.

>>17845650

>In the Name of the Father: The Story of Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four by Gerry Conlon

>One of four innocent people convicted of a terrorist bombing in Guildford, England, tells of the miscarriage of justice that resulted in imprisonment for himself and members of his family, including his father, and describes the struggle to clear his name and gain his freedom.

>>17845655

>Operation Chiffon: The Secret Story of MI5 and MI6 and the Road to Peace in Ireland by Peter Taylor

>On the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, Peter Taylor tells for the first time the gripping story of Operation Chiffon, MI5's top-secret intelligence operation that helped bring peace to Ireland.

>April 1998: the Good Friday Agreement is signed, ending decades of violence and bloodshed in Northern Ireland. The process of getting the IRA to end its so-called 'armed struggle' was always the prerequisite of the search for peace. It was Operation Chiffon that finally helped make it possible.

>Operation Chiffon takes us inside the top-secret intelligence operation whose roots go back to the bloodiest years of the conflict in the early 1970s, involving officers from MI6 and, later in the 1990s, MI5. The remarkable story, which has remained hidden for forty years, is now revealed by legendary BBC journalist Peter Taylor with unique access to the officers involved. Drawing on exclusive interviews and Taylor's fifty years of covering the conflict, the book narrates in first-hand detail how those involved risked their careers – and their lives – to help secure the fragile peace that exists today.

>Taylor vividly brings this covert operation to life and in the process chronicles the history of Sinn Féin, rising from obscurity in the early days of the Troubles to becoming the largest political party in Ireland today. It is a story fraught with uncertainty and danger that, as Brexit risks destabilising what was achieved in the Good Friday Agreement twenty-five years ago, is more important than ever to remember.

>>17845675

>On the Blanket: The Inside Story of the IRA Prisoners' "Dirty" Protest by Tim Pat Coogan

>The H Block protest is one of the strangest and most controversial issues in the tragic history of Northern Ireland. Republican prisoners, convicted of grave crimes through special courts and ruthless interrogation procedures, campaigned for political status by refusing to wear prison clothes and daubing their cell with excrement.Were they properly convicted criminals, or martyrs to political injustice? In a masterpiece of investigative journalism, Coogan provides us with the only first-hand account of the protest. His investigation led deep into the social, cultural, and economic maze of Northern Ireland's history to give readers an unmatched analysis of a troubled place and its sorrowful history.

>>17845687

>God and the Gun: The Church and Irish Terrorism by Martin Dillon

>In this astonishing and at times terrifying book, acclaimed writer and political commentator Martin Dillon examines for the first time the true role of religion in the conflict in Northern Ireland. He interviewed those directly involved--terrorists like Kenny McClinton and Billy Wright and churchmen like Father Pat Buckley--finding that the terrorists were more forthcoming than the priests and ministers. Dillon charts the history of the paramilitary forces on both sides and exposes the shocking covert role of British intelligence. He finds that, ultimately, both the church and government have failed their communities, allowing men and women of violence to fill a vacuum with bigotry and violence.

>>17845693

>Gerry Adams: An Unauthorised Life by Malachi O'Doherty

>Reviled as a terrorist and hailed as a peacemaker, Gerry Adams remains a controversial figure. Drawing on new intelligence and exclusive interviews, this biography follows his journey from street activist to elder statesman with access to prime ministers and presidents.

Okay, I'm done.

Feel free to post anymore recommendations you got.

>>17845489
>enter a history thread about a history that makes you seethe with rage
>seethe with rage
how could this have happened?

most "irish" threads on this board are non-irish people seething about ireland, its as much a mystery to irish posters as it is to anyone else. the fact that something as innocent as a thread literally just suggesting history books on /his/ has sent you spiralling into a rage is very telling

>>17846334
saaarrrrrrrr

>>17845499
>he waited exactly 10 minutes to samefag
oh no no no anglosisters...

>>17845737
I think you posted all the books on the topic already. Jesus Christ

>>17845737
said already but ty anon

I will refer to this thread if I make future posts/threads about the Troubles and people ask for a "book list."

>>17842753
Great book. There's a miniseries I think on Hulu that was descent based on the book also.

>>17848320
reactions to that series (on disney+ too, kek) were very funny; extremely hardline republicans hated it for being too anti-republican, and extremely hardline loyalists hated it for being too pro-republican