Amazon.com Review
"If you are not confused, you don't understand the situation." So said a Belfast graffito of the late 1970s--a hauntingly accurate comment on the political violence that has raged in Northern Ireland for generations. The causes of that violence are complex, and all but impenetrable to outsiders: it has something to do with religion, something to do with economics, something to do with politics, and very much to do with memory and history, along with the local penchant for remembering wrongs and rights for years and years after the actual events.
New York-based journalist and historian Jack Holland, whose ancestors are Northern Irish, Catholic and Protestant both, does much to clarify the confusion with Hope Against History. He writes of the Troubles over the last 30-odd years, a time when militant forces favoring continued union with Great Britain battled those seeking union with the Republic, a battle that quickly degenerated into terrorist warfare that killed far more innocents than combatants. It took too long, and too many lives, before both sides began to see the wisdom of abandoning this senseless sectarian violence for a political solution; the slow evolution of that view takes up much of Holland's detailed narrative. Holland gladly gives credit to opposing political leaders such as Gerry Adams and Gary McMichael for recognizing that each side had a role in determining Northern Ireland's future. He also credits the Clinton administration for its efforts in the peace process--efforts, he suggests, that arose from Clinton's wanting to garner support among conservative American Catholics, but that soon transcended narrow political interest.
As Holland notes, the details of that solution are far from being settled. Still, he suggests, there is plenty of reason to hope that the Northern Irish people, of whatever heritage, will soon find a way out of violence and get on with the work of living together. --Gregory McNamee
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
August 1999 marks the 30th anniversary of the introduction of British troops onto the streets of Northern Ireland in response to widespread civil disturbancesAthe watershed event that marked the start of the Troubles. Holland, a journalist, writer (The American Connection, etc.) and Belfast native of both Protestant and Catholic descent, provides a broad analysis of the history of the conflict. Drawing on his contacts among all parties (in Republican and Loyalist paramilitary organizations and in the British security forces), he guides readers through what he describes as the Twilight WarAthe shadowy realm in which the IRA, the loyalist paramilitary groups and the British security forces conducted their low-intensity, but often brutal, war. His claim that, before the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, the IRA was losing the armed struggle and had been effectively neutralized by the Royal Ulster Constabulatory in many areas of Northern Ireland will be hotly disputed. He also downplays the impact of the IRA's bombing campaign in England in the early 1990sAa campaign that, in the opinion of many observers, compelled the British government to launch secret talks with the IRA. While the book will profit those with little knowledge of Northern Ireland, it is not an ideal introductory text. For more knowledgeable readers, however, this volume will be invaluable. Few other works, if any, provide as many insights into the strategies, tactics and operations of the paramilitaries and the British security forces. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
