In this astonishing and at times terrifying book, acclaimed writer and political commentator Martin Dillon examines for the first time the true role of religion in the conflict in Northern Ireland. He interviewed those directly involved--terrorists like Kenny McClinton and Billy Wright and churchmen like Father Pat Buckley--finding that the terrorists were more forthcoming than the priests and ministers. Dillon charts the history of the paramilitary forces on both sides and exposes the shocking covert role of British intelligence. He finds that, ultimately, both the church and government have failed their communities, allowing men and women of violence to fill a vacuum with bigotry and violence.
"Arranged by period and style, you can see at a glance patterns used from ancient to contemporary times. A handy pattern finder up front makes it easy to locate and cross-reference any motif or design in the book. Whether you have a long-standing interest in art and ornamentation or a newfound curiosity, you'll find 1000 Patterns an intriguing reference and fascinating history."--BOOK JACKET.
Read it for nostalgia, for memories of pop culture, for history, or for pure entertainment. Growing Up Canadian, Volume 2 will shed a spotlight on the astonishing degree to which Canada changed in a mere twenty years from 1960 to 1980. Rolling out in a series of fast-paced entries are TV shows and personalities, rock and pop music, fads and fashion, the stars of stage and screen, the high and low lights of sports, and much more. The reader will be guided along a compelling journey through the Canadiana of the recent past. The stereotypes about Canada and Canadians being dull, and history being boring, are decisively laid to rest through wit and humour.
This book examines the Northern Ireland civil rights movement and the Reverend Ian Paisley’s opposition. Although street demonstrations began in the summer of 1968 and lasted a year, activism to advance Ulster’s catholic community originated in the late 1950s. During this period, Paisley crusaded against Protestant apostasy and the liberalization of the Unionist government, and asserted a Calvinist response for protestants. Paisley formed a political and theological association with North Americans who professed militant fundamentalism and fought the integration of American society. Between 1965 and 1968, Paisley made three visits to the United States and Canada. During these extensive speaking tours, he witnessed the consequence to a successful campaign. The relationship, religiosity and first-hand knowledge of current events helped to shape Paisley’s counter-demonstrations in Northern Ireland, and create an atmosphere for sectarian strife and the “Troubles.”
In Shakespeare Our Contemporary (1964), Polish critic Jan Kott defines one purpose of scholarship in the humanities that summarises the chief aim of this project: ‘The writing of history and, above all, literary criticism can, and must, always be understood as an attempt to find in the past aspects of human experience that can shed light on the meaning of our own times’. That is precisely what From the ‘Troubles’ to Trumpism: Ireland and America, 1960–2023 attempts to do. Aided by the insights of Irish and Northern Irish playwrights, poets and novelists, this book uses America’s historical relationship with Ireland and Northern Ireland as a means of understanding the rise of Trumpism and assessing its potential to incite a new American ‘Troubles’. Three related aims are to demonstrate the interdependence of Ireland and the United States since the Famine in Ireland and the American Civil War in the nineteenth century; to delineate the political and economic obstacles in the latter decades of the last century that prevented this relationship from evolving into a more consequential partnership; and to identify the underappreciated leaders who played crucial roles in both the brokering of the Good Friday Agreement and the inception of a revised foreign policy.
The State of Loyalism in Northern Ireland examines the changes and developments within parliamentary loyalism throughout the Northern Ireland peace process. Drawing from interviews with key players, it charts the drama of tensions, debates and negotiations and provides a compelling inside account.
Minority nationalism is a significant not to say potent force in the modern world. In many countries new problems of and for minority nationalism have recently surfaced. This book presents a wide ranging examination of the state of minority nationalism in the 1970s and 1980s. It considers many different cases in detail: Britain, Ireland, the Soviet Union, Canada, France, Spain and South Africa. It explores the political and socio-economic circumstances surrounding minority nationalism, analyses its successes and failures in recent years, and looks at an exhaustive range of issues: the structures and politics of minority nationalist movements, relations with governments, ideology, attitudes to human rights, and so on. Interestingly, it views both Afrikaners in South Africa and Protestants in Northern Ireland as cases of minority nationalists in dominant positions finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their positions.
On 14 August 1969, at the age of 14, Michael McCann and his family fled their home. Life changed totally for the McCanns and the entire nationalist community. Thousands of innocent people vacated their homes, driven out by the initial pogrom and then by the ongoing campaign of expulsion by loyalist violence and intimidation. The British army occupation and the continuing violence utterly devastated communities on a monumental scale. Burnt Out: How the Troubles Began, shows how the truth became one of the first casualties of the horrific events of August 1969. It examines the prominent role of state forces and the unionist government in the violence that erupted in Derry and Belfast and assesses how and why the violence began and generated three decades of subsequent brutality. Against a mountain of contrary evidence, many still choose to blame the violence on the commemoration of the Easter Rising in 1966 and the efforts of the nationalist community to defend themselves on two hellish August nights in the late summer of 1969. Burnt Out: How the Troubles Began, is essential reading for anybody interested in the outbreak and causes of 'the Troubles'.
An accessible, clearly-written account of the IRA from 1916 to today. It covers the origins and history of the organisation, its aims, the political and military thinking which has driven its activities, and the major personalities who have shaped the direction of the movement down through the years. The relationship with the Irish and British governments is examined, as well as the effects of the major bombing campaigns and the 1981 hunger strikes. It also explains the radical shift in thinking which led to the IRA seeking a political way towards the goal of Irish unity rather than pursuing the entrenched 'Brits Out' policy at the point of a gun. The background to the IRA ceasefire, and the many factors which contributed to its ending are looked at, as well as the prospects for a lasting peace in one of the world's most troubled arenas. With a new chapter that brings us as far as 2018 this book has everything you need to know about the IRA.
In The Trigger Men, bestselling author Martin Dillon delves into the dark and sinister world of Irish terrorism and counter-terrorism. Over three decades he has interviewed and investigated some of the most professional, dangerous and ruthless killers in Ireland. Now Dillon explores their personalities, motivations and bizarre crimes.Many of Ireland's assassins learned their trade in fields and on hillsides in remote parts of Ireland, while others were trained in the Middle East or with Basque separatist terrorists in Spain. Some were one-target-one-shot killers, like the sniper who terrorised the inhabitants of Washington State in the autumn of 2002, while others were bombers skilled in designing the most sophisticated explosive devices and booby traps. Another more powerful group of 'trigger men' were the influential figures in the shadows, who were experts in motivating the killers under their control. All of these men, whether they squeezed the trigger on a high-powered rifle, set the timer on a bomb or used their authority to send others out to commit horrific and unspeakable acts of cruelty, are featured in this book. The Trigger Men takes the reader inside the labyrinthine world of terrorist cells and highly classified counter-terrorism units of British Military Intelligence. The individual stories are described in gripping, unflinching detail and show how the terrorists carried out their ghastly work. Dillon also explores the ideology of the cult of the gunmen and the greed and hatred that motivated assassins in their killing sprees. There are penetrating insights into the mindset of the most infamous assassins: their social and historical conditioning, their callousness......
