Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 147
Politics and Current Events
The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings by Don Mullan (Paperback; 9.99 IEP / 12.50 USD / 8.50 UK) [Add To Basket]
The Dublin and Monaghan bombings constitute the biggest unsolved murder case in the Irish State. They account for the single greatest loss of life in any one day of the so-called Troubles. Thirty-one Irish people, together with a French and an Italian citizen, were murdered, and hundreds were maimed. After a quarter of a century the bereaved and injured consider themselves doubly wounded because of their treatment by the Irish State and its agents. They seek public accountability. They want to know the truth.
The author's research on Bloody Sunday was crucial in forcing the establishment of the Saville Inquiry. He now examines the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the subsequent investigations, the political responses and the media coverage. Mullan says: 'The suspected involvement of British military intelligence in assisting Loyalist paramilitaries to place no-warning bombs, dwarfs Bloody Sunday in its implications.'
This book tackles questions unanswered since 1974 - questions with far-reaching ramifications for the Irish and British states and their institutions and citizens.
Disappeared: The Search for Jean McConville by Seamus McKendry (Paperback; 8.99 IEP / 11.50 USD / 7.50 UK) [Add To Basket]
In 1972, a young widow was dragged from her bath screaming and bundled into a waiting van while her children looked on in horror. Although accused of many things, Jean McConville's only 'crime' was to be a Protestant married to a Catholic in a bitter sectarian society. Her fifteen year-old daughter, Helen, was left to take care of her younger siblings and ask in vain what had become of her mother. She received little help in the years that followed and grew tired of defending her mother and waiting for her to come home. When Helen married Seamus McKendry in 1976, he made her a promise to seek out the truth. This promise took them on a journey which lasted almost thirty years and ruing which they suffered endless threats and abuse from a hostile community which resented Seamus and Helen's condemnation of the 'People's Army.' In 1994, Helen and Seamus started the Families of the Disappeared organization to provide help and support to other families in the same situation. Putting their own lives at risk, they spoke to senior members of the IRA and had meeting with Sinn Fein representatives in an effort to secure the truth about Jean and other people who had been 'disappeared'. This is their courageous story.
The Chosen Few: Exploding Myths in South Armaghby Darach MacDonald (Paperback; 9.99 IEP / 12.50 USD / 8.50 UK) [Add To Basket]
In the early 1970s, Britain's then Northern Secretary, Merlyn Rees, disdainfully dubbed South Armagh 'Bandit Country'. The name stuck and the blanket military presence transformed a district with a peaceful past into the most infamous 'killing field' for British soldiers stationed in Northern Ireland. In this book, the author determines that the people of South Armagh are neither gangsters nor bandits, and it is not a lawless place. Yet the myth persists. This book is a compelling account of the life of a community under siege and a significant contribution to the history of Ireland, north and south.
The Northern Ireland Peace Process: Ending the Troubles? by Thomas Hennessey (Hardback; 19.99 IEP / 25.00 USD / 17.00 UK) [Add To Basket]
This book traces the genesis and evolution of the Irish Peace Process. It is the first book that has had access to all the relevant documentation, much of it not yet in the public domain. The author argues that the Peace Process was the merging of two quite separate streams. First, there were inter-party talks which involved the British and Irish governments and the constitutional parties of Northern Ireland. Second, there was the internationalist dialogue, initiated by John Hume, which gradually moved republicans away from violence towards the political arena. The Belfast agreement was a junction of these two processes, attempting a compromise between the centre of unionist and nationalist politics. This book begins with a short survey of the period from 1920 to 1986. Part two looks at the years following the Anglo-Irish agreement of 1985, when unionists were in turmoil. Parts three and four deal with the endgame from 1990 to 2000, including political developments since the Belfast agreement.
The Arms Trial by Justin O'Brien (Paperback; 9.99 IEP / 12.50 USD / 8.50 UK) [Add To Basket]
In May 1970, two Irish Cabinet Ministers, Neil Blaney and Charles Haughey, were dismissed by the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, for allegedly using Government money to import arms for the fledgling Irish Republican Army. It was the early days of the Northern Ireland troubles and the crisis in Belfast and Derry threatened to destabilise the entire island. This dramatic moment in modern Irish life is here retold. The Arms Crisis split the Dublin establishment and briefly threatened the stability of the Republic of Ireland. It nearly finished the political career of Charles Haughey, the most prominent and charismatic of the defendants, who spent most of the 1970s in the political wilderness before staging a comeback to power in 1979.
Inside the Maze: The Untold Story of the Northern Ireland Prison Service by Chris Ryder (Hardback; 17.99 IEP / 22.50 USD / 16.00 UK) [Add To Basket]
With the historic closure of the Maze Prison this year, this book reveals the story of one of the most turbulent battlegrounds of the Ulster troubles, and examines how Northern Ireland's prison service - the third arm of the security forces after the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British Army - has survived the years of conflict and made its mark on the province's future.
This book records how the Northern Ireland Prison Service struggled to cope with the volatile forces it had to contain. After the outbreak of the Troubles in 1968, the hastily built Maze Prison became a university of terrorism, where the confrontation and violence it was intended to control continued to rage behind bars. Ten inmates died in the hunger strike of 1981, and two years later thirty-eight prisoners broke out in the largest ever prison escape. Yet against all odds, and despite the continual terrorist threat, the prison that was one of the most notorious symbols of the Troubles at last became a powerhouse for peace, with former and present terrorist inmates playing leading roles in the search for a lasting political settlement. The book is the definitive history on this controversial subject, casting new light on the sources of conflict and the origins of the peace process in Northern Ireland which culminated in the Belfast Agreement on 1998.
The Power Game: Fianna Fail since Lemass by Stephen Collins (Hardback; 20.00 IEP / 25.00 USD / 17.50 UK) [Add To Basket]
Since 1932 Fianna Fail has rarely been out of power, and the party has had an extraordinary hold over Irish politics. In office for 53 out of 68 years, it is one of the longest-reigning political parties in the world. Its early leaders, Eamon de Valera and Sean Lemass, were looked upon with awe and reverence. But the sudden resignation of Lemass, in November 1966, precipitated the first leadership challenge in the history of Fianna Fail. The generation which had fought in 1916 and later set up the party, had finally relinquished control. Since then there have been four party leaders - and a change in style and approach more dramatic than anyone could have foreseen. Because these new leaders had not shared the experiences of the founding fathers, neither did they share the same values and sense of commitment that animated their elders. The battle for control of Fianna Fail turned into a series of struggles for the soul of the party.
In this book the author tells the almost unbelievable stories of the modern struggles for power within Fianna Fail, including the arms crisis, the various heaves against Charles Haughey, the shafting of Albert Reynolds. He explores, in detail, the careers of Jack Lynch, Charles Haughey, Albert Reynolds and Bertie Ahern, and delves into the strengths and weaknesses of each of these leaders. He discusses the effects on party morale of the revelations of the various tribunals, and examines the enduring hold the party has on its followers and on the Irish electorate despite the most unprecedented events.
An Irishman's Diary by Kevin Myers (Paperback; 9.95 IEP / 12.50 USD / 8.50 UK) [Add To Basket]
Since the early 19902, Kevin Myers has been the mainstay of the Irish Times 'Irishman's Diary' column. Outspoken, whimsical, outrageous, funny, deadly serious - the reader never knows what to expect. Myers is sometimes jester, sometimes the conscience of the nation. This book collects and selects from a decade of the diary to provide an intriguing look on life in Ireland.
Will You Murder My Husband: Catherine Nevin and the IRA by Gerard Doherty (Paperback; 6.99 IEP / 8.50 USD / 5.50 UK) [Add To Basket]
This book lifts the lid on the IRA's involvement in the Nevin trial. The success of the murder trial inevitably rested on the evidence given by the three principal witnesses - the men she asked to kill her husband. For the three men, two of them republicans, the witness box in the Central Criminal Court was the last place they wanted to be, and this reluctance enhanced their credibility when the jury came to consider the veracity of their evidence. The involvement of the IRA in the prosecution's case was unprecedented. Republicans had never before recognized the legitimacy of the court, let alone given evidence, but these witnesses played a pivotal role in Catherine Nevin's conviction on all four counts. It contains new revelations about her attempts to ingratiate herself with the IRA and the lengths to which she was prepared to go to achieve her aim.
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