Product Description

Based on the author's television series on the IRA, this book traces the group's history and relationship with Sinn Fein.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12487 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Where does one begin with the IRA? In the 17th century with the first Protestant settlers in the Northeast of Ireland? With Patrick Pearse's seizure of the GPO building in Dublin in 1916? With the Partition of Ireland in 1921? With the bombing campaign of the 1950s? In 1968 with the first civil rights marches? With the arrival of British troops on the streets of Belfast and Derry in 1969? Any one of these flash points could have served as a starting point for Peter Taylor's remarkable book--and indeed he pays more than lip service to their importance in Irish history. Yet he wisely chooses to make the events of 1970 to the present day his main focus, because despite what took place before, these are the years that will determine the shape of the new Ulster.

In 1970, the IRA was largely held to be a spent force. The Loyalists were running riot in Northern Ireland, while the IRA had largely forsaken nationalism in favour of extreme left-wing politics. They saw the upper classes as the oppressors of the Irish people and held that the Catholic and the Protestant working class should join together against the prevailing system and thus advocated a non-violent response to their Protestant comrades. Whatever the merits of this analysis--and there were and are some--this wasn't quite how the Catholic working class of Ulster saw the situation. They saw they were living in worse accommodation, they saw that the political system was gerrymandered to prevent change and they saw that Catholic unemployment ran significantly higher than Protestant unemployment. So to the Catholics the IRA came to stand for "I Ran Away".

Having served as the BBC's Northern Ireland correspondent for many years, Taylor is well placed to chart the ebbs and flows of the IRA--from the hunger strikes of the early 1980s to the massacre at Enniskillen. Moreover, he does so with the eyewitness accounts of many IRA member who agreed to be interviewed for this book. Their stories make fascinating--if sometimes nauseating-- reading. Incidentally, it's the self justification of these men that ends up more nauseating than their violence. But that's something we're all just going to have to live with, because men such as Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are now part of the political furniture and are likely to be key players in any Northern Ireland Assembly. Taylor has updated the text for this paperback edition to take in the 1998 Good Friday agreement and beyond, but only a fool would imagine this is the end of the story. If you want to know the plot so far, then this book is required reading. --John Crace

Customer Reviews

A fascinating and authoritative study
I bought this book because I wanted to understand how the conflict in N.Ireland could have continued for so long. Peter Taylor is an excellent researcher, broadcaster and writer and his experience of the conflict is second to none. His book is not just another plain factual and political account of the conflict, but about real people. To me, the most disturbing thing about the book is that for the first time I really understood just how easy it was for people, who would otherwise have led normal lives, to become engaged in activities that they would never have contemplated in normal circumstances. This book is an absolute must for anyone wanting really to understand why there has been such conflict and why it has continued for so long.

An excellent history of the modern IRA.
Many journalists parachute into an issue, write their byline, and disappear when the next round of flack begins. Not so Peter Taylor, who in staying with Northern Ireland for almost a generation is a reporter who gives journalism a good name. He has not only produced substantial television series on both the IRA and Loyalist terroristism, but is aware that despite the evident advantage of using television to explain life's complexities many of the subtleties may need to be further developed in prose. This is not however a book of the television series, but stands on its own right as a deeply researched analysis of not just the history of the IRA but of the political mindview within which they work. Taken in conjunction with his equivalent and more recent book on Loyalist terrorists Peter Taylor has ensured that no one in Britain (or Ireland) can now excuse their lack of understanding by maintaining that no-one has seen fit to provide a suitably accessible study of the protagonists. If you want to know why the political extremists have come in from the cold and seem now engaged in political rather than military campaigns you can do no better than read Peter Taylor.

Impressive History Of The IRA
Peter Taylor's TV series were highly impressive and his books even better. He's a courageous reporter who has managed to track down many of the leading provos and, most importantly, got them to relate their history in as revealing and provocative a way as possible. Taylor is always quick to detect subtexts within his history and his detachment and determination to uncover the truth are admirable. There are, of course, countless partisan accounts of the Troubles but this manages to sound balanced without ever becoming bland. He is to be congratulated for one of the best books yet written on this difficult subject.