The Troubles - book recommendation?

2,379 Views | 9 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by 87Flyfisher
Ag In Ok
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AG
I know far too little about the history of The Troubles and with all going on today i would like to learn more. Are there any good book recommendations from the board?
AgRyan04
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This is all I have:

Another head hangs lowly
Child is slowly taken
And the violence caused such silence
Who are we mistaken?
But you see, it's not me, it's not my family
In your head, in your head, they are fightin'
With their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their guns
In your head, in your head, they are cryin'
Yordaddy
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AG
In for this thread. Watched The Wind that Shakes the Barley recently
Belton Ag
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AG
AgRyan04 said:

This is all I have:

Another head hangs lowly
Child is slowly taken
And the violence caused such silence
Who are we mistaken?
But you see, it's not me, it's not my family
In your head, in your head, they are fightin'
With their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their guns
In your head, in your head, they are cryin'


It was early this morning and I read the first two lines thinking they were book titles. It was the third line before I caught on.
RPag
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Peter Taylor has a trilogy that covers the history of the Troubles through the IRA (Provos), Protestant-Unionists (Loyalists) and the British Government/Military (Brits). They are all great but his book "Loyalist" goes into great detail the sectarian violence perpetrated by Protestants in the Troubles, something most people are unaware of here.

Ed Moloney has a book called A Secret History of the IRA goes into the internal politics and divisions in the IRA and who benefitted most from the peace. Spoiler, it was the politicians of Sinn Fein.

Patrick Radder Keefe has a great book, Say Nothing, that examines the IRA's abduction and murder of Jean McConville (a mother of 10) and the disappearance of her body for decades. If you ever hear someone speak of the IRA as freedom fighters, just mention that little episode. It also caused me to really despise Gerry Adams as he assuredly knew and approved of the murder.

Kevin Myers' "Watching the Door" is an interesting look into the life of a young journalist in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s, the most violent period of the Troubles. A kind of coming of ages story that describes the slums and casual violence that gripped all walks life in those years.

Eamon Collins - Killing Rage is an autobiography about his time in the IRA and his eventual disillusionment with the cause and later testimony against his former comrades. He would later be murdered by the IRA in 1999.

I have a few more lying around that I can't think of right now. It was an incredibly violent and intimate affair. True only about 3700 were killed over 30 years but of that same ratio had occurred in the US, it would have been 600,000. About 1 in 50 of Northern Ireland's 1.5 million people were injured in the violence. The IRA would plant a car bomb in the middle of downtown Belfast, some times call the police with a warning, and then it would detonate killing mostly civilians. Protestant Loyalists would cruise down Catholic neighborhoods and shoot random people walking down the streets with the assumption that they were Catholics Or walk into a Catholic pub and machine gun it's patrons. The British army would torture suspected IRA members, shoot at Catholic demonstrators, and covertly support Protestant death squads. It truly was a dirty war on all sides.
Ag In Ok
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AG
Thank you - i picked up Say Nothing and will pick up the Peter Taylor trilogy afterwards. Looking forward to reading both perspectives.
90 bull
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Say nothing was a tough read. Agreed that it makes you dislike Gerry Adams
Ag In Ok
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AG
So - just finished Say Nothing.
I learned so much about The Troubles and was pretty much completely unaware of what was really going on. The infighting, the assassinations, the pawns / the innocent, what governments are truly capable of doing to maintain the status quo, and silence.

The silence.

Amazing book, i would recommend it.
RPag
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It is an absolutely wonderful book that strips away any poetic license that the IRA has thrived on over the past century. The murdered and the maimed and all for what? So politicians like Gerry Adams, who to this day denies being in the IRA (a lie so outlandish it is almost difficult to argue with), can join the same government that they said they had been trying to over throw. And now Sinn Fein/IRA will argue that what they were actually fighting for was equal rights for Catholics, something that was achieved by the mid 70s, perhaps in order to smooth their uneasy consciousnesses over the fact that they have accepted the partition of Ireland. The very thing they went to 'war' to overturn.
87Flyfisher
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AG
Just finished watching the PBS series "Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland" and I thought it was a good, even handed work. Lots of background on the "why" and IRA, UDA, British Army and RUC people giving first hand accounts. It will take you a little while to get over the images and stories from the " Dirty" protests and hunger strikes in HM Prison Maze.
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