Product Description

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76869 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

About the Author
Martin Dillon has won international acclaim for his unique investigative reporting and is regarded as one of the foremost experts on global terrorism. He is the author of 14 books. His bestselling trilogy The Shankill Butchers, The Dirty War and God and the Gun, from his non-fiction work, is regarded as the definitive account of the Ireland conflict. He also co-authored Rogue Warrior of the SAS: The Blair Mayne Legend and The Assassination of Robert Maxwell: Israel's Superspy. He lives in New York.

Customer Reviews

knowledgeable writer on ulster troubles
Although this book covers the same ground as Dillons previous ones,it contains information that couldn't be put in before because of legal reasons. For instance the chapter on the loyalist UVF unit known as the Shankhill Butchers,names one of the members which he couldn't do in his 1989 SHANKHILL BUTCHERS book because the member died in 1997. There are chapters on LVF leader Billy Wright(Dillon interviewed him), UDA hitman Michael Stone, 'mad dog' Johnny Adair, INLA leader Dominic 'mad dog' McGlinchey, british agent Brian Nelson,the Kincora sex scandal and its security force links.Much more including Dillon's own view on the STAKEKNIFE affair(IRA informer working for the british). It's not his best book but he's one of the best writers on Northern Irelands paramilitary conflict. Recommended.

The Loyalist Trigger Men
The book should have been called "The Loyalist Trigger Men". Eleven of the thirteen chapters deal with loyalist terrorists. Another chapter is devoted to poetry and verse on victims of mostly loyalist terrorism. One chapter is on a republican terrorist.

Martin Dillon without condoning in any way the IRA tends to lean to the republican side. He uses a term physical force politics in reference to the IRA. This is after all terrorism using a benign phrase.

The book is however fascinating and terrifying. It opens to the unknowing the dealings that were in place between government agencies and terrorists of both sides, and of deals between terrorists of opposing sides.

The book brings the brutality, and fanaticism of the trigger men right into your face. For all that it is terrifying I found the book compulsive reading.

Good but biased
Make no mistake - this is a good book on the Troubles. But it is also heavily biased in favour of Irish Republicanism, with deliberate omissions included to favour Dillon's agenda. Examples? Well, read the book and you'll come away thinking the murdered solicitor, Pat Finucane, was an innocent apolitical solicitor crusading for human rights in Ulster. Sorry - he wasn't. Sean O'Callaghan (former IRA Chief of Staff) has recently revealed that Finucane was actually a senior IRA volunteer. Oh, by the way, Finucane's brother John was killed whilst on active service with the IRA`in the Falls Road in 1972. His brother Dermot was a member of the IRA`who fought successfully a Brit extradition request to have him sent back to the North from Dublin. And a third brother, Seamus, (IRA member who served time for terrorist offences) was the fiancee of Mairead O'Farrell, the IRAwoman shot dead in Gibraltar whilst recceing a plot to murder innocent civilians and army bandsmen. None of this is mentioned in Dillon's book, amazingly. Why not? It's common knowledge in Northern Ireland. Presumably revealing these facts would dent Dillon's presentation of Finucane as a crusading human rights champion cut down by the British state.