The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal and the Search for Peace: Ireland's Ordeal and the Search for Peace

“The Troubles” – what a strange name for a war. In Northern Ireland, over the three decades between 1969 and 1998, 3000 people died violent deaths in a province the size of Connecticut; but we call it “The Troubles” – a name that seems more suitable to a long-standing family quarrel. At the same time, the civil conflict in Northern Ireland *was* in many ways a family quarrel, carried on between antagonists who knew each other exceedingly well, as Tim Pat Coogan conveys in his book "The Troubles."Coogan, a former Irish Press editor, brings to his authorship of "The Troubles" decades of knowledge and experience studying the Northern Ireland conflict; he seems to know everyone involved in the conflict, and his encyclopedic knowledge of Irish history serves him well as he sets forth his history of the Troubles.Going all the way back to the medieval beginnings of British involvement in Ireland, Coogan quickly brings the reader forward to the year 1969, when long-standing grievances between Northern Ireland’s dominant unionist, Protestant majority and the province’s largely disenfranchised nationalist, Catholic minority burst out in violence. Coogan’s journalistic experience serves him well through the way he cites primary sources, as when he provides the testimony of a Catholic priest recalling an August 1969 unionist attack on a Catholic neighborhood of Belfast: “We remember this night when the Falls Road area was devastated by gunfire and by petrol bombs. In the early hours of the morning I was standing at a fourth storey window of Clonard, looking out at a scene of desolation” (p. 100).Coogan has sometimes been criticized for writing about the Northern Ireland conflict, and the history of Ireland generally, from an excessively nationalist perspective. And it is true that Coogan has written books about Michael Collins, but not Sir Edward Carson; about the IRA, but not the UVF. Yet Coogan is open about his inclinations toward the nationalist perspective; the book’s subtitle -- "Ireland’s Ordeal and the Search for Peace" -- provides a clear sense of the extent to which Coogan sees the Northern Ireland conflict as part of the broader sweep of Irish history generally. Coogan is frank about his perspective on the Troubles, as when he says that in a television debate with an Ulster unionist, “I argued as a Nationalist,” while his opponent “considered himself British and adumbrated the principles of his Belfast, Unionist and Protestant background” (p. 375). He is not pretending to be a disinterested and altogether objective observer; rather, he is reporting the on-the-ground facts from Northern Ireland, and stating what those facts mean to him.Coogan is most conscientious in setting forth the intricacies and complexities of the conflict’s intelligence and media dimensions. Chapter 10, “Legal Weaponry,” dealing as it does with the military-intelligence dimension of the Troubles, may give unwary readers a bit of a headache. Before reading Coogan’s book, for example, I was not aware of a conflict between British intelligence agencies MI-5 (domestic intelligence) and MI-6 (foreign intelligence) regarding “whether the Six Counties [of Northern Ireland] were part of the ‘UK mainland’ or the ‘UK overseas’” (p. 291). Interesting to imagine that conversation, isn’t it? An MI-5 agent points out that Northern Ireland is one of the four largest units of the United Kingdom, along with England, Scotland, and Wales – “U.K. mainland,” clearly. In reply, an MI-6 agent sips his tea or claret and says, “My dear fellow, you will pardon me for pointing out that Northern Ireland is separated from Great Britain by North Channel and the Irish Sea, and is therefore clearly to be regarded as ‘U.K. overseas.’”Chapter 11, “The Media War,” discusses perceptively the efforts of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government to control the terms in which the conflict was discussed, banning some programs and demanding the editing of others, but may be most memorable for Coogan’s verdict regarding Great Britain’s often strident tabloid newspapers: “Where the tabloid press is concerned, let me say merely that, as with Aids and cancer, I hope that some day a cure will be found” (p. 377).Coogan is often harshly critical of unionist leaders like Ian Paisley, and of the Thatcher ministry’s approach to the Troubles. But he praises American leaders like U.S. President Bill Clinton, who worked hard to bring the opposing parties to the negotiating table in the 1994 ceasefire.This book, published in 1996, fairly cries out for an update, considering that just two years later, the Good Friday accords of 1998 brought to troubled Northern Ireland a peace agreement that, miraculously, has lasted.I read "The Troubles" while traveling in Northern Ireland, and was delighted to find, in my visit to the province, that the commitment to peace among citizens of Northern Ireland, whatever their political convictions, is strong. In Belfast, one can, if one wishes, take a “black taxi” tour and see the wall murals in the nationalist and unionist neighborhoods that were epicenters of the Troubles; or one can tour the very fine Titanic museum by the old Harland & Wolff docks, and observe how Belfast works to re-define herself. In Derry/Londonderry, historically a city so divided that its citizens can’t even agree upon what the city should be called (it is sardonically referred to as “Stroke City”), there is a Peace Bridge across the River Foyle, and a Peace Flame, and a statue called “Hands Across the Divide” that shows two people, symbolic of the Catholic/nationalist and Protestant/unionist communities, reaching toward each other across the space between them – not quite clasping hands in friendship just yet, but almost there. The details of the Northern Ireland conflict, as one reads about them in Coogan’s book, are painful in the extreme; but today, almost twenty years after the Good Friday accords were signed, one can look at the relatively tranquil life of the once-troubled province with a strong sense of hope. And if peace can take hold in a war-torn place like Northern Ireland, perhaps someday it can take hold everywhere.

A History written by a man who was part of shaping that very history. Excellent resource for understanding the issues, and the considerable number of factions involved. A lot of complexity to the subject, but the writing style and approach helps considerably to feel the historic flow and track the progression.The reader needs to know there is definitely a sympathetic slant towards the catholic/ republican view, but not to the point of being unfair to the truth about all sides.Have always loved the author’s writings, to help illuminate those of us on the outside looking in.

Highly recommended, through, and very well written. This book covers the entire conflict beginning to end. Occasionally there is a word or two I had to look up but no complaints. I am looking at some other books by this author.

This is about the 6th Irish history book that I have read and thoroughly enjoyed by this author, Tim Pat Coogan. His research is impressive. He is probably the best 20th/21st century historian I have read!

A very comprehensive insight into the Troubles.

Coogan brings the insight and style of a talented journalist combined with an attention to detail any historian with respect to this complicated story. I'll ask for contemporary readers it ends in 1996 and I'll have to find this level of detail on the rest of the story elsewhere.

Tim Pat Coogan... the best. Read the book

After a recent viewing of the movie "Bloody Sunday" I thought it was time to delve into the subject matter of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Some years ago I read the Green Flag, which gives a comprehensive history of the political situation in Ireland leading up to Irish independence in 1920. I was hoping the present book would advance my knowledge to the present time, more or less, but I was disappointed.There is no doubt in my mind that the author is eminently qualified to speak on the subject. He has lived through the Troubles and experienced them first hand. As someone who grew up during the same time period, I was certainly generally aware of the ongoing problems in Northern Ireland through the eyes of the American news media. I was looking for a contemporary narrative from someone who was there and willing to tell a balanced story.The author's story is most definitely balanced and detailed, but therein lies the problem, at least for me. I had difficulty understanding and dealing with the great detail involving individuals, politicians, competing groups and organizations, and their splinter cells and break-offs (especially the great number of abbreviations, e. g., IRA, UVA, RUC). The major players are evident but it's difficult to follow the others.So, sad to say, my search for enlightenment on the Troublers must continue elsewhere.

Written in good English. Almost poetic. Even though one doesn't expect it to be poetic.

good storyline historically accurate.

This book was well researched and well written for those who want to learn about the duality of the British and Unionists to the use of violence in Ireland.This translates as Violence used to Free Ireland from British rule: a baddie.Violence used against Irish Nationalists: Goodie.This is the British Media view of the War in Ireland.The things people forgot to remember are listed here in this well written easy to read book by TPC.they include the reforming of the UVF in 1966..well BEFORE the PIRA in 1969.And Unionist revisionist and their British media lackeys ( and also the Stickies in RTE and west Brit Irish Independent are also pedalling these lies also) claim the Loyalist violence was ONLY a response to IRA violence.Tut tut..Now read this book and let TPC straighten things out for ya.He also details the Larne gun running of 1914..a topical subject in 2014 in this anniversary year of WW1. And the British mutiny in Ireland.World War 1 actually SAVED the British army from a highly embarrassing coup.More people need to read this book.Anyone with Unionist views will need Prozac afterwards...It demolished their claims on democracy..Or they are as democractic as East Germany was..Funning how the GDR and the DUP ( Ulster Resistance) both claim the word democracy in their title but are anything but.There you go, then.

Arriving on time impressed with the outcome

This excellent book is compulsory reading for anybody in current affairs and modern history