The IRA

by Tim Pat Coogan

Overview

An updated edition of this unique, bestselling history of the Irish Republican Army, now including behind-the-scenes information on the recent advances made in the peace process. The IRA provides the only objective, comprehensive history of the organization that has transformed the Irish nationalist movement during the past century. With clarity and objectivity, Coogan examines the IRA's origins, its foreign links, bombing campaigns, hunger strikes and sectarian violence and its role in the latest attempts to bring peace to Northern Ireland.

Meticulously researched and backed up by interviews with past and present members of the organization, Tim Pat Coogan's book is an authoritative and compelling account of modern Irish history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312294168
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/05/2002
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	864
Sales rank:	390,565
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.75(d)

About the Author

Tim Pat Coogan is one of the best known journalists and historians in Ireland. Former editor of theIrish Press, he has written several books, includingWherever Green is Worn (Palgrave), The Troubles (Palgrave), On the Blanket; and bestselling biographies of Michael Collins and De Valera. He lives in Dublin.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgements	ix
	Introduction	xi
Part I	Beginnings to 1969
1	The Origins of the IRA	3
2	Dilemmas of Violence and Politics	38
3	The Triumph of Fianna Fail	64
4	The IRA's Foreign Links	92
5	The Bombing Campaign	113
6	Years of Disaster	132
7	The IRA in the North	160
8	The Years of the Curragh	191
9	The IRA and the Nazis	202
10	Republic and Republicans: I	218
11	Republic and Republicans: II	244
12	Prelude to the Border Campaign	256
13	Splits in the Ranks	277
14	The Border Campaign: 1956-62	297
15	New Initiatives: 1962-70	330
Part II	1969-1979
16	The Roots of the Conflict	341
17	The Constitutional Participants in the Drama	354
18	The Provisional IRA -- the Rebirth of a Movement	365
19	The British Campaign	385
20	Response to Violence	392
21	Prison: Riots, Escapes, Unlucky Freedoms, Personalities and a Place Called Crossmaglen	402
22	Hunger Striking: the IRA Reach Beyond the Bars	410
23	Arms	429
24	The Use of Torture	438
25	Sectarian Murder	443
26	Return to Secrecy and Discipline	464
Part III	1979-1986
27	The Ignition of the Crisis	477
28	Five Demands and Hunger Strikes	486
29	The Test of the Ballot Box	502
30	Bombs in Britain and Counter-Insurgency	513
31	Action in Ireland	522
32	The INLA: 1980-93	534
33	The Green Book	544
34	The Green Book: II	560
Part IV	1986-1993
35	The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend	575
36	Gerry Adams	620
37	Peace Comes Dropping Slow	639
38	From Despair to Hope	671
	Appendix I	774
	Appendix II	775
	Selected References	777
	Glossary	780
	Index of Names	783
	General Index	799
	Maps
	Ireland	xxiii
	Northern Ireland	2
	Belfast	340

Editorial Reviews

No student of Irish history can afford to ignore this book. No scholar is likely to improve on it... A fascinating book, of the greatest possible value to us all...” —Times Literary Supplement

“The standard reference work on the subject...” —The New York Times

From the Publisher

Coogan ( The Man Who Made Ireland: The Life and Death of Michael Collins ) here presents a definitive history of an organization that has been equally romanticized and vilified. Considered by many to be the legitimate successor of the Fenians, the Irish Republican Army was founded during the war of independence (1916-1922). After the treaty signing, the leadership split over its ratification, dividing the IRA into Collins's pro-treaty side and Eamon de Valera's anti-treaty forces. Coogan relates the IRA's support of de Valera and his subsequent about-face on becoming Taoiseach (Prime Minister) when he introduced the Offences Against the State Act in 1939 in response to the IRA's bombing campaign in England. Some of the most interesting parts of this book surround the events of WW II when de Valera coyly played his neutrality card in favor of the British. Coogan reminds us that the present troubles in Northern Ireland began as a civil rights campaign and did not take on a truly militant character until the events of the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1972, in which 13 unarmed marchers were killed, reviving a comatose IRA. The author relates atrocities on both sides as the IRA fought with arms, hunger strikes and funeral processions, while the British countered with prisons, torture and assassination squads. This first U.S. edition (the book was originally published in the U.K. in 1970) is updated with important information concerning the Special Air Services, a British hit-unit and the story of ``Maxwell,'' an Ulster Defense Regiment officer whose mission included the destruction of the Book of Kells. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly