List of books about the Troubles

Last updated July 01, 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 (Random House)
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
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.
Keefe, Patrick Radden (2018). Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland . William Collins ISBN 978-0-008-15925-2
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
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 Provisional Irish Republican Army, officially known as the Irish Republican Army and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland. It was the most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles. It argued that the all-island Irish Republic continued to exist, and it saw itself as that state's army, the sole legitimate successor to the original IRA from the Irish War of Independence. It was designated a terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland, both of whose authority it rejected.

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 is sometimes described as an "irregular war" or "low-level war". The conflict 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".

Francis Arthur Ormsby is an author and poet from Northern Ireland.

The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) (Irish: Cumann Cearta Sibhialta Thuaisceart Éireann) was an organisation that campaigned for civil rights in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in Belfast on 9 April 1967, the civil rights campaign attempted to achieve reform by publicising, documenting, and lobbying for an end to discrimination against Catholics in areas such as elections (which were subject to gerrymandering and property requirements), discrimination in employment, in public housing and abuses of the Special Powers Act.

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)

From 1969 until 1997, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) conducted an armed paramilitary campaign primarily in Northern Ireland and England, aimed at ending British rule in Northern Ireland in order to create a united Ireland.

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

The Warrenpoint ambush, also known as the Narrow Water ambush, the Warrenpoint massacre or the Narrow Water massacre, was a guerrilla attack by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 27 August 1979. The IRA's South Armagh Brigade ambushed a British Army convoy with two large roadside bombs at Narrow Water Castle outside Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland. The first bomb was aimed at the convoy itself, and the second targeted the incoming reinforcements and the incident command point (ICP) set up to deal with the incident. IRA volunteers hidden in nearby woodland also allegedly fired on the troops, who returned fire. The castle is on the banks of the Newry River, which marks the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dessie Grew</span> Irish Republican (1953–1990)

Desmond "Dessie" Grew was a volunteer in the East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Grew was killed by undercover Special Air Service soldiers in County Armagh in 1990 along with fellow IRA volunteer, Martin McCaughey who was also a Sinn Féin councillor.

The Troubles were a period of conflict in Northern Ireland involving republican and loyalist paramilitaries, the British security forces and civilians. They are usually dated from the late 1960s to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. However, sporadic violence has occurred since that time, with those involved often being referred to as "dissident republicans and loyalists". The Troubles, sometimes known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, claimed roughly 3500 lives.

On 28 February 1985, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) launched a heavy mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) base at Corry Square in Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland. The attack killed nine RUC officers and injured almost 40 others; the highest death toll ever suffered by the RUC. Afterwards, a major building scheme was begun to give police and military bases better protection from such attacks.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Bates (loyalist)</span> Northern Irish loyalist

Robert William Bates was a Northern Irish loyalist. He was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the infamous Shankill Butchers gang, led by Lenny Murphy.

The Battle of St Matthew's or Battle of Short Strand was a gun battle that took place on the night of 27–28 June 1970 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was fought between the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), and Ulster loyalists in the area around St Matthew's Roman Catholic church. This lies at the edge of the Short Strand, a Catholic enclave in a mainly-Protestant part of the city. Violence had erupted there, and in other parts of Belfast, following marches by the Orange Order. The battle lasted about five hours and ended at dawn when loyalists withdrew. The British Army and police were deployed nearby but did not intervene. Three people were killed and at least 26 wounded in the fighting, while another three were killed in north Belfast.

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.

Proinsias Mac Airt was an Irish republican activist and long-serving member of the Irish Republican Army.

The Finchley Road bombings occurred on 2 October 1993, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated three time bombs on Finchley Road in north London, England. Telephoned warnings were sent six minutes beforehand, at approximately 00:26 UTC, but five people were injured from falling glass as a result of the blasts, and damage was caused to some shops and flats in the surrounding area. The three bombs were planted outside a Domino's Pizza restaurant, a travel agent, and offices of the St. Pancras Building Society. Later, anti-terrorist officers discovered and subsequently safely detonated a fourth bomb in a controlled environment, 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the initial bombings, in Golders Green. Two days later, on 4 October, the IRA detonated four more bombs in north London, two in Tottenham Lane and two more in Archway Road resulting in four injuries.

References

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List of books about the Troubles

Contents

Non-fiction

Fiction

See also

Related Research Articles

References