BRADLEY SPEAKS OUT FOR THE FIRST TIME – WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM THE IRAThe IRA was Gerry Bradley's life. His sole interest was in 'ops' – carrying out on-the-ground war. Inspired, initially, to defend his home place against Loyalist threats, he became one of the most senior operators in Belfast IRA. When things turned political, there seemed to be no place for his kind of activism.THE INSIDE STORY BY A SENIOR IRA MAN

From the first symptoms of serious unrest - the Divis Street riots of 1964 - to the tortuous political manoeuvrings culminating in the 2003 Assembly elections, the book traces the reality of life in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.It details the motivation behind the IRA 'armed struggle', the Civil Rights movement, the murder campaigns of various loyalist terror groups, the major incidents of violence and the response of the British security forces and the justice system....

Seán MacDíarmada moved in the shadows, ultra-cautious about what he committed to paper, aware that his letters could be intercepted by the police. Because of this, history has not allocated MacDíarmada the prominent role he deserves in the organisation of the Easter Rising.This book gives Seán MacDíarmada his proper place in history. It outlines his substantial role in the detailed planning of the Rising, which led to him signing the Proclamation of the Irish Republic: second only ...

The British campaign in Northern Ireland remains one of the most controversial actions in recent history.This book by Aaron Edwards considers the strategic, operational and tactical aspects of what become the longest ever campaign embarked upon by British troops. The 38-year campaign, codenamed Operation Banner, went through a number of phases. It began as a peacekeeping operation, morphed into a counter-insurgency operation and ending as a policing and counter-ter...

The practice of terror in revolutionary Ireland remains a highly controversial topic, which seldom receives either balanced or dispassionate treatment. This collection of essays is designed to illuminate the varied origins, forms and consequences of terror, whether practised by republicans or forces of the Crown. It is the fifth production of the Trinity History Workshop, an informal group of academic historians, research students, and undergraduates associated with Trinity College, Dublin...

The SAS describes its attitude to the use of lethal force as 'Big boys' games, big boys' rules'. Anyone caught with a gun or bomb can expect to be shot. In Big Boys' Rules: The SAS and the Secret Struggle Against the IRA Mark Urban meticulously explores the security forces' covert operations in Northern Ireland: from the mid-1970s, when they were stepped up, to the Loughall ambush in 1987, in which eight IRA Provisionals were killed. While charting the successes and failures of sp...

Former soldier Ken Wharton witnessed the troubles in Northern Ireland first hand. Bloody Belfast is a fascinating oral history given a chilling insight into the killing grounds of Belfast's streets.Wharton's work is based on first hand accounts from the soldiers. The reader can walk the darkened, dangerous streets of the Lower Falls, the Divis Flats and New Lodge alongside the soldiers who braved the hate-filled mobs on the newer, but no less violent stree...

A candid and brutal account of murder, abduction, and violence during the Troubles in Northern Ireland-from two men on opposite sides of the conflict.After 'the long war' in Ireland came to an end, very few paramilitary leaders on either side spoke openly about their role in that bloody conflict, but in Voices from the Grave, two leading figures from opposing sides reveal their involvement in bombings, shootings and killings on one condition: that their stories wer...

The author of Bloody Belfast delivers "a vivid and unforgettable record" of the Northern Irish conflict that captures the "true horrors of war" ( Best of British).There are stories from some of the most seminal moments during the troubles in Northern Ireland—the Crossmaglen firefights, the 1988 corporals killings, the Ballygawley bus bombing, and more—told from the perspective of the British soldiers who served there between 1969 and 1998. This wa...

Michael Stone was born in East Belfast in 1955. In 1988 he was sentenced to 800 years in prison. He served twelve years in the Maze prison before being released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. He is now an artist, and proponent of the peace process.

This is not a boring history book. Instead, it takes a sympathetic look at some very  ordinary people in a very extraordinary time.  Of interest to anyone whose forefathers left Ireland in the late 19th or early 20th century. Contains informative and graphic accounts and photographs of the lives of both rich and poor, in Belfast while the Titanic was being built.

"A fine, fast and very funny meditation" from the notable British intellectual ( Washington Post).If you're looking for a field guide to leprechauns, T he Truth About the Irish is not the book for you. But if you can handle a frank and funny look into the minds and hearts of Irish people, you've been touched by that fabled Irish luck.Covering all things Irish from Blarney to Yeats, renowned literary and cultural critic Terry Eagleton separ...