An angry, obsessive analysis of the Anglo-Irish conflict that
throws the Good Friday Peace Accords into doubt and condemns Irish
extremists (rather than the British) for perpetuating a
disorganized, politically naive terrorist war whose victims have
been mostly innocent civilians.Don't call the killings, bombings,
and riots in Northern Ireland mere `Troubles,` warns journalist
Geraghty (Who Dares Wins, not reviewed). Born on English soil to
Irish parents, Geraghty began covering Northern Ireland for Londons
Sunday Times in 1969. To him, the current peace has not closed the
door to isolated, reactive incidents, but is a mere phase in a
continuous `Irish War` that began in 1691, when `amateur warriors .
. . refined terrorism into an art form.` He makes his case in four
sections that brim with anguish at so much senseless suffering,
beginning with is a recap of the political-religious violence and
intrigue from 1969 to 1998 that asserts, among other things, that
the IRA stage-managed several violent incidents in Belfast to
demonize the British and encourage American financial support. This
is followed with an insider's look at 30 years of British
strategies that have thwarted somebut far from allIRA and Ulster
Defense Army terrorism; an outsider's appraisal of the IRA homemade
weapons industry; and an expose of the collusion between the Royal
Ulster Constabulary (the heavy-handed Northern Ireland police
force) and Protestant terrorists. Geraghty concludes with a hasty
but thorough overview from 1691 to the present that (while
acknowledging murderously cruel British oppression) identifies a
distinctively Irish `physical force tradition` that has little to
do with contemporary religious affiliation or political
goals.Publication of this book got Geraghty arrested in 1998 for
violating England's Official Secrets Act, though the Crown later
dropped its charges (and with good reason: the few British tricks
revealed herein pale beside a devastating accusation of IRA
inhumanity to the Irish). (20 b&w photos, maps, illustrations)
(Kirkus Reviews)
A full and definitive account of the war waged between Irish
Republicans and England over three centuries by the bestselling
author of 'Who Dares Wins', with emphasis on the latterday role of
the special forces. From the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 to the
Downing Street Declaration of 1993, Britain and Ireland have been
in mortal conflict over the sovereignty of the Emerald Isle. In
'The Irish War', bestselling author Tony Geraghty writes a full and
compelling account of the tragic three-hundred-year war, tracing
the path to today's weary peace. From his years of reporting the
outbreak of the troubles in 1969 for the Sunday Times to the
present, Tony Geraghty has covered every bloody twist and turn of
the IRA and the Loyalist campaigns, but his unerring eye for detail
took him back through the centuries to uncover the roots and causes
of the grievances and feuds that have been so ruthlessly fought
over in the past twenty-five years. The result is a powerful
history of England's ruthless aggression against her small Catholic
neighbour and that tiny island's utter determination to oust the
bullying intruder. After the battles of the Boyne and Aughrim,
deserted by the last of their officers and with inferior resources,
the Irish reinvented the rules of warfare to their advantage. The
battle cry of Sinn Fein - 'Ourselves Alone' - went up and a code of
fighting that ignored the rules of war was let loose. Tracing the
roots and meaning of the terrible war that has been fought overtly
and covertly for three hundred years, 'The Irish War' is essential
reading for all those seeking to understand the relations between
these two nations.
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