Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 136
History and Politics
The Politics of Force: Conflict Management and State Violence in Northern Ireland by Fionnuala Ni Aolain (Paperback; 19.50 IEP / 25.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
The use of lethal force by agents of the state between 1969 and 1994 in incidents like Bloody Sunday and the Gibraltar shootings has engendered profound public disquiet in Northern Ireland and indeed throughout the world. Much has been said and written about these controversial deaths, but until now there has been no comprehensive scrutiny of the use of lethal force in Northern Ireland. This important study fills that gap. Analysing the evidence gathered from her unprecedentedly rigorous research, the author demonstrates that lethal force in Northern Ireland is not an isolated aspect of state practice to be explained away as 'spur-of-the-moment' decisions by law-enforcers. It is an integral part of the state's evolving policy of conflict management, along with emergency legislation and the use of legal process. The result is a unique mirror on Northern Ireland's 'legal limbo' and how the state has attempted to manage a protracted emergency within the sometimes constricting framework of a democratic society.
Police Casualties in Ireland 1919-1922 by Richard Abbott (Paperback; 15.00 IEP / 19.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
The year 1919 saw the beginning of a serious challenge to the Royal Irish Constabulary, a force whose members had peaceably served the community for many years. Within the space of three years policing had changed out of all recognition throughout Ireland. This book tells the story of these turbulent years and charts the history of both the RIC and the nationalist groups that rose to oppose them, leading to the establishment of the Irish Free State and the eventual disbandment of the force in 1922. The book records in detail accounts of the killing of serving and former members of the RIC, supplying available background details of many of these fatal attacks. These accounts are, where possible, accompanied by thumbnail sketches of the victims and by an overview of the complicated political situation that existed in Ireland at the time.
Making Peace by George Mitchell (Paperback; 16.95 IEP / 20.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
Fifteen minutes before five o'clock on Good Friday 1988, Senator George Mitchell was informed that his long and difficult quest for an Irish peace effort had succeeded - the Protestants and Catholics of Northern Ireland, and the government of the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, would sign the agreement. In this book Mitchell, who served as independent chairman of the peace talks for the length of the process, tells the inside story of the gruelling road to this momentous accord and the subsequent developments that may threaten, or strengthen, the chance for lasting peace in Northern Ireland.
Soldier of the Queen by Bernard O'Mahony (Hardback; 14.99 IEP / 18.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
At the age of 19, former juvenile criminal Bernard O'Mahony joined the British Army to escape a looming prison sentence. He signed up with a tank regiment he thought would never serve in Northern Ireland. But before too long he found himself foot-slogging on the border constituency of Bobby Sands just as the imprisoned republican Member of Parliament approached the end of his hunger strike - and the north looked set to go up in flames.
In his determination to get home alive, Bernard trampled on civilised values and the rule of law. This book is the shocking story of what he got up to. Many readers will find him and his revelations distasteful and outrageous. But the strength of his account lies in the unblinking honesty with which he tells it, neither trying to hide the sort of person he was then, nor offering easy excuses to explain the behaviour of himself and his unit, the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragon Guards. Almost all accounts of army life in Northern Ireland have been written by members of elite or specialist units. This book gives the ordinary British squaddie's viewpoint of life on the ground at the height of the 'dirty war'. This is a book which disturbs.
Guardians of the Peace by Conor Brady (Paperback; 8.50 IEP / 11.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
The establishment of an unarmed police force in the Irish Free State was one of the most significant achievements of the early years of Irish self-government. In this book, the author traces the story of the Garda Siochana from its foundation. He details the conflicts and tensions between the Garda leaders and their political masters. He recounts the establishment of the Special Branch in 1925 and the struggle by the Gardai to maintain the rule of law during the years of the Blueshirt movement and the emergency of 1939-1945.
The Outer Edge of Ulster: A Memoir of Social Life in 19th Century Donegal by Hugh Dorian (Hardback; 25.00 IEP / 35.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
Hugh Dorian (1834-1914), a writing clerk, watches the 'Donegal prisoners' arrive at Derry gaol under a military escort. Indignant at their treatment - in print as much as in prison - he writes a 'true historical narrative' of the transformation of his home community in the nineteenth century. That community, though never named by Dorian, is the Fanaid peninsula on the Atlantic coast of north Donegal. Dorian describes the ordinary and the everyday - births, deaths and marriages, hedge-schools and schoolmasters, the poitin industry and donkey races, local systems of land holding, the social position of craftsmen and musicians, and the personal and sectarian hatreds that shaped his childhood. And then he describes the extraordinary and the incomprehensible - the Great Famine and the 'mournful silence', the sense of communal bereavement, that followed in its wake. The book is prefaced by a scholarly introduction which traces the personal and political troubles that befell the author.
The Resurrection of Ireland: The Sinn Fein Party 1916-1923 by Michael Laffan (Hardback; 50.00 IEP / 62.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
This book examines how, after the Easter Rising of 1916, radical revolutionaries formed a precarious coalition with (relatively) moderate politicians, and analyses the political organization of Irish republicanism during a crucial period. The new Sinn Fein party routed its enemies, co-operated uneasily with the underground Irish government which it had helped to create, and achieved most of its objectives before disintegrating in 1922. Its rapid collapse should not distract from its achievements - in particular, its role in 'democratising' the Irish revolution. Its successors have dominated the political life of independent Ireland. The book studies in some of the party's membership and ideology, and also its often tense relationship with the Irish Republican Army. A final chapter examines the fluctuating careers of the later Sinn Fein parties throughout the rest of the twentieth century.
Trinity College Dublin: A Beautiful Place edited by Lynn Mitchell and Elizabeth Mayes (Paperback; 9.99 IEP / 13.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
Trinity College is Ireland's oldest and most famous university, founded by Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I in 1592. Originally located outside the city walls, it now stands at the heart of the city, its beautiful buildings and gracious squares formed a forty-two acre oasis of quiet and learning. It is famous for the splendour of its 18th century Georgian architecture, for its numerous treasures, most notably the magnificent early Christian manuscript: the Book of Kells. This book recounts the history of the college, and captures its spirit and charm in a collection of photographs. The book is a pleasing momento of the college's historical and cultural riches.
Irish Folk History: Tales from the North by Henry Glassie (Paperback; 19.50 IEP / 25.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
Made of the words of the people who live today in the beautiful, embattled countryside of Ulster, this book is the people's own statement of their past. In story, song, and spontaneous essay, these texts tell of the coming of Christianity, of endless war, of the hardships and delights of rural life. During a time of trouble, the author came into a community of active story-tellers in County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, and in this book he sets their voices before the reader to present a tale that is at once the story of their tiny community and the story of all of Ireland.
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