List of books about the Troubles

Last updated November 18, 2024

The following is a list of books about the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Non-fiction

Baldy, F. Tom (1997). The Battle for Ulster: A Study of Internal Security. Diane Publishing ISBN 0-7881-4145-7
Bell, J. Bowyer (1993). The Irish Troubles: A Generation of Violence 1967–1992. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-08827-2
Beresford, David (1989). Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike Atlantic Monthly Press ISBN 978-0-87113-269-7
Bishop, Patrick; Mallie, Eamonn (1988). The Provisional IRA. London: Corgi. ISBN 978-0-552-13337-1.
Bourke, Richard (2003). Peace in Ireland: The War of Ideas. London: Pimlico. ISBN 1844133168.
Carroll, Rory (2023). Killing Thatcher: The IRA, the Manhunt and the Long War on the Crown. London: HarperCollins GB. ISBN 978-0593419496. (Published in the United States under the title There Will Be Fire: Margaret Thatcher, the IRA, and Two Minutes That Changed History)
Cobain, Ian (2020). Anatomy of a Killing: Life and Death on a Divided Island. London: Granta. ISBN 978-1846276408.
Coogan, Tim Pat (2002). The IRA (5th ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-29416-8.
Collins, Eamon and Mick McGovern (1999). Killing rage. London: Granta. ISBN 978-1-86207-047-9
Curtis, Liz (1984). Ireland: The Propaganda War – The British Media and the 'Battle for Hearts and Minds'. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 0861047575.
Edwards, Aaron (2017). UVF: Behind the Mask. Newbridge, County Kildare: Merrion Press. ISBN 978-1785370878.
Dillon, Martin (1989). The Shankill Butchers: A Case History of Mass Murder. London: Hutcheson
Edwards, Ruth (2000). The Faithful Tribe: An Intimate Portrait of the Loyal Institutions. HarperCollins ISBN 978-0-006-38890-6
English, Richard (2012). Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA (revised ed.). London: Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4472-1249-2.
Grant, Patrick (1999). Breaking Enmities: Religion, Literature and Culture in Northern Ireland, 1967–97. New York: St Martin's Press ISBN 978-0-333-69829-7
Grant, Patrick (2001). Literature, Rhetoric, and Violence in Northern Ireland, 1968–1998: Hardened to Death. New York: Palgrave ISBN 0333794125
Harnden, Toby (2000). Bandit Country: The IRA and South Armagh. Coronet Books ISBN 978-0-340-71737-0
Henderson, Deric; Little, Ivan, eds. (2018). Reporting the Troubles: Journalists Tell their Stories of the Northern Ireland conflict. Newtownards, County Down: Blackstaff Press. ISBN 978-1780731797.
————————; ————, eds. (2022). Reporting The Troubles 2: More journalists tell their stories of the Northern Ireland conflict. Newtownards, County Down: Blackstaff Press. ISBN 978-1780733258.
Hemming, Henry (2024). Four Shots in the Night: A True Story of Spies, Murder, and Justice in Northern Ireland. London: Quercus. ISBN 978-1529426755.
Keefe, Patrick Radden (2018). Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland . William Collins ISBN 978-0-008-15925-2
Kennedy, Liam (2020). Who Was Responsible for the Troubles?: The Northern Ireland Conflict. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0228003687.
McDonald, Henry (2010). I.N.L.A – Deadly Divisions. Dublin: Poolbeg Press. ISBN 978-1781990551.
McGartland, Martin (1997). Fifty Dead Men Walking: The True Story of a British Secret Agent inside the IRA. Hastings House ISBN 978-0-803-89407-5
McKittrick, David, and David McVea (2012). Making Sense of the Troubles: The Story of the Conflict in Northern Ireland Viking ISBN 978-0-241-96265-7
McKittrick, David (2001). Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles . Mainstream Publishing ISBN 978-1-840-18504-1
McKittrick, David et al. (1996). The Fight for Peace: The Secret Story Behind the Irish Peace Process ISBN 978-0-434-00308-2
Miller, David (1994). Don't Mention the War. Northern Ireland, Propaganda and the Media. London: Pluto
Moloney, Ed (2010). Voices from the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0571251681.
Myers, Kevin (2006). Watching the Door: Drinking Up, Getting Down, and Cheating Death in 1970s Belfast. Soft Skull Press ISBN 1-593-76235-6
O'Brien, Brendan (1999). The Long War: The IRA and Sinn Féin. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-0597-3.
O'Callaghan, Sean (1998). The Informer: The Real Life Story of One Man's War Against Terrorism. Bantam Books ISBN 0-593-04285-9
O'Doherty, Malachi (2019). Fifty Years On: The Troubles and the Struggle for Change in Northern Ireland. London: Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1786496645.
———————— (2021). The Year of Chaos: Northern Ireland on the Brink of Civil War, 1971-72. London: Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1838951221.
Rolston, Bill (ed.) (1991). The Media and Northern Ireland: Covering the Troubles. Macmillan Academic and Professional Ltd. ISBN 0-333-51575-7
Sanders, Andrew (2011). Inside the IRA: Dissident Republicans and the War for Legitimacy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0748646043.
Schlesinger, Philip et al. (1983). Televising Terrorism: Political Violence in Popular Culture. London: Comedia
Seymour, Gerald (1992). The Journeyman Tailor. HarperCollins ISBN 978-0-06-017998-4
Sharrock, David, et al. (1998). Man of War, Man of Peace: The Unauthorised Biography of Gerry Adams. Pan Books ISBN 978-0-330-35396-0
Stevenson, Jonathan (1996). "We Wrecked the Place": Contemplating an End to the Northern Irish Troubles. Free Press ISBN 068482745X
Taylor, Peter (1998). Provos: The IRA and Sinn Féin. Bloomsbury ISBN 978-0-7475-3818-9
Taylor, Peter (1999). Loyalists: War and Peace in Northern Ireland. Bloomsbury ISBN 978-0-7475-4519-4
Taylor, Peter (2000). Brits: The War Against the IRA. Bloomsbury ISBN 978-0-7475-5806-4
Toolis, Kevin (1995). Rebel Hearts: Journeys within the IRA's Soul. Picador ISBN 978-0-330-34243-8
Urban, Mark (1992). Big Boys' Rules: The Secret Struggle Against the IRA. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-16809-5.

Fiction

Beirne, Luke Francis. (2023) "Blacklion". Baraka Books.
Brandner, Cindy. (2001) Exit Unicorns Series:
- (2001) Exit Unicorns
- (2007) Mermaid in a Bowl of Tears
- (2012) Flights of Angels
- (2013) Spindrift
- (2016) In the Country of Shadows
- (2018) Bare Knuckle
Burns, Anna (2018). Milkman. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0571338740.
Hughes, Michael (2018). Country. London: John Murray. ISBN 978-1473636538.
Hidcote, J. P. (2019). The Gortin Paradox: The Coulter Confessions Part 2. ISBN 978-1916176614.
MacLaverty, Bernard (1988). Cal . Heinemann ISBN 978-0-435-12336-9
McKinty, Adrian. Sean Duffy Series:
- (2012). The Cold Cold Ground. Serpents Tail ISBN 978-1-616-14716-7
- (2013). I Hear the Sirens in the Street. Serpents Tail ISBN 978-1-616-14787-7
- (2014). In the Morning I'll Be Gone . Serpents Tail ISBN 978-1-616-14877-5
- (2015). Gun Street Girl. Serpents Tail ISBN 978-1-633-88000-9
- (2016). Rain Dogs. Serpents Tail ISBN 978-1-633-88130-3
McNicholl, Damian (2004). A Son Called Gabriel ISBN 1-59315-018-0
Patterson, Glenn (1999). The International
Seymour, Gerald (1975). Harry's Game . Random House ISBN 978-0-394-49902-4
Uris, Leon (1995). Trinity. Doubleday ISBN 978-1-568-65150-7
Watts, Lee (2015). A Stone's Throw ISBN 978-1-5172-6492-5

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The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the Troubles mostly took place in Northern Ireland, at times violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England, and mainland Europe.

The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group based in Northern Ireland. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former Royal Ulster Rifles soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook an armed campaign of almost thirty years during The Troubles. It declared a ceasefire in 1994 and officially ended its campaign in 2007, although some of its members have continued to engage in violence and criminal activities. The group is a proscribed organisation and is on the terrorist organisation list of the United Kingdom.

Martin Dillon is an Irish author, journalist, and broadcaster. He has won international acclaim for his investigative reporting and non-fiction works on The Troubles, including his bestselling trilogy, The Shankill Butchers, The Dirty War and God and the Gun, about the Northern Ireland conflict. The historian and scholar, Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien, described him as "our Virgil to that Inferno". The Irish Times hailed him as "one of the most creative writers of our time".

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Ulsterisation refers to one part – "primacy of the police" – of a three-part strategy of the British government during the conflict known as the Troubles. The strategy was to disengage the non-Ulster regiments of the British Army as much as possible from duties in Northern Ireland and replace them with members of the locally recruited Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR). The objective of this policy was to confine the effects of the conflict to Northern Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Provisional Irish Republican Army campaign</span> PIRA paramilitary campaign aimed at ending UK control of Northern Ireland (1969–97)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warrenpoint ambush</span> IRA attack on British forces in 1979

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The Downing Street mortar attack was carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 7 February 1991. The IRA launched three homemade mortar shells at 10 Downing Street, London, the headquarters of the British government, in an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister John Major and his war cabinet, who were meeting to discuss the Gulf War.

The Ballygawley bus bombing was a roadside bomb attack by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on a bus carrying British soldiers in Northern Ireland. It occurred in the early hours of 20 August 1988 in the townland of Curr near Ballygawley, County Tyrone. The attack killed eight soldiers and wounded 28. In the wake of the bombing, the British Army began ferrying its troops in and out of County Tyrone by helicopter.

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The Clonoe Ambush was a military action between the British Army and the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) that occurred during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. On 16 February 1992, an IRA unit attacked the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) security base in the village of Coalisland in County Tyrone, and was ambushed shortly afterwards by the Special Air Service (SAS) in the grounds of a church in the village of Clonoe whilst attempting to make its escape, resulting in several IRA fatalities.

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References

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List of books about the Troubles

Contents

Non-fiction

Fiction

See also

Related Research Articles

References