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Title: A Secret History of the IRA by Ed Moloney ISBN: 0-393-05194-3 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 30 September, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.17 (6 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Honest survey of the shift from republican tradition
Comment: Perhaps overwhelming for the beginner, but for those informed about the evolution of the IRA and its movement away from the Green Book and the armalite to the British and Irish parliaments, Moloney offers corrective and sobering detail of the Adams and McGuinness-led coterie and their domination of the present Provos in both the IRA and Sinn Fein...Moloney has painstakingly assembled his evidence after long years spent bending the ear of many a hard man. As a native of Belfast and a skilled journalist, he writes without the verve of J. Bowyer Bell or the swagger of Tim Pat Coogan, but his own version of IRA history fills in details previously unreported by mainstream authors or known by the public crucial to a nuanced understanding of how the Provo IRA via SF came to be the acceptable face of republicanism today.
Rating: 5
Summary: Behind the mask of violence
Comment: 'The secret history of the IRA' is an engrossing and revelatory dissection of one of the most infamous terrorist forces in modern Western society and indeed, on the world stage. Never before has the Irish republican army and the republican movement been subjected to a complete autopsy, unearthing the truth behind the myth and unravelling the workings of a shadowy and clandestine organisation.
Unlike previous insights into the IRA, which have centred on purely an outsiders perception of Irish republicanism and the armed struggle, Moloney has successfully infiltrated into the heart of the movement. He has brought to the table an understanding of the IRA's raison d'etre and illustrated how painfully and precariously the mechanisms for achieving their goals have shifted, albeit at a glacial pace, from the smoking barrel of a gun to the electoral political process.
The first few pages set the tone, detailing Gerry Adams atavistic republican sentiments and how support for the armed struggle was passed from generation to generation like a family air loom. From this point on Moloney uses Adam's and in particular his revolutionary approach to the Irish question, as a historical and political barometer with which to measure the movement. He clearly identifies Adam's as a defining figure within Irish republicanism, which is nothing new for many political and social commentators. However, what is intriguing is how Maloney describes the events to which a fragile peace was eventually achieved, with Adam's acting as it's sole initiator. He details the duplicity and secrecy of Adam's strategy to instil change within the IRA and also how he influenced other nationalist political parties to join together to provide a united pan nationalist front. In addition, Moloney provides absorbing material on how two fundamentally different entities, the IRA and the British government, entered into dialogue and how their tempestuous relationship developed with Adams in the middle pulling the strings. There are numerous other interesting insights which weave throughout the book. Most notably, are the continuous, entrenched doctrinal divisions of the republican movement and the development and eventual success of the British intelligence to counter IRA military operations.
Moloney's tome is a detailed, informative account of Anglo -Irish modern history and Irish Republicanism. He brings a humanistic quality to the IRA, which is a seemingly difficult task to do for an organisation whose uncompromising violence is intrinsically inhumane. However, he succeeds were others may have failed as many of the unanswered questions about the IRA are not clouded in mystery and secrecy anymore.
Rating: 5
Summary: This book will stand the test of time.
Comment: With all the books that have been written on the Irish Troubles (Coogan, Bell, Holland, etc), its hard to believe that any new insights or perspectives could be possible, but 'A Secret History' is stunning in this regard. It absorbs all that has been written before and goes deeper, using inside sources in the Republican Movement to offer a view of the Peace Process that is enlightening, to say the least. Gerry Adams, in particular, emerges as a monumental contemporary Irish political figure - cunning, brilliant, ruthless, daring. The story of his engineering an end to the war in Northern Ireland has been told many times, but what is not generally known is that he did so by deliberatly misleading/betraying his own movement. Whether or not you think this is a good thing (it resulted in the Good Friday Accords) is for each individual reader to decide. But the author of this book, Ed Maloney, does a tremendous historical service by giving people a deeper and more informed version of events than anything published so far.
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Title: Handbook For Volunteers Of The Irish Republican Army : Notes On Guerrilla Warfare by Irish Republican Army Ireland Staff, General Headquart Irish Republican Army ISBN: 0873640748 Publisher: Paladin Press Pub. Date: December, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Ira by Tim Pat Coogan ISBN: 0312294166 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Pub. Date: January, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Bandit Country by Toby Harnden ISBN: 0340717378 Publisher: Trafalgar Square Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Armed Struggle `: The History of the Ira by Richard English ISBN: 0195166051 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: August, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Rebel Hearts : Journeys Within the IRA's Soul by Kevin Toolis ISBN: 0312156324 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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