Loyalists: War and Peace in Northern Ireland [Hardcover]

Peter Taylor (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Taylor ... brings to this volume years of access to major and minor figures in this history. One of the best features of his work is its precision.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: TV Books (June 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575000474
• ISBN-13: 978-1575000473
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,896,789 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, clear, portrayal of the loyalists in Northern Ireland, February 8, 2002

By 

Bryan (Greensboro, North Carolina United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Loyalists: War and Peace in Northern Ireland (Hardcover)

First and foremost, the introduction was very sad but made me keep reading. Although my sympathies lie more in the nationalist camp, through reading this book I was able to comprehend why the loyalists have done things like the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in '74. Taylor does a wonderful job of showing that in a conflict such as that in Northern Ireland, no one is innocent, and people feel forced to do things that they would never do under normal circumstances. I would have liked to have seen more about the loyalist splinter groups, as well as the UDA's connection to Combat 18, which is a British neo-Nazi group, but those are tiny little nit-picky details in a much wider conflict. Like his book on the IRA, Taylor has done massive amounts of research and interviews with this book. I feel sorry for the people who have died in this conflict in the past 33 years, and Taylor has shown me why I feel that way.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another excellent book by Peter Taylor., May 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Loyalists: War and Peace in Northern Ireland (Hardcover)

This book complements the author's Provos/Behind the Mask very well. It is an excellent read for any person interested in Northern Ireland.

If you don't have any allegiance to either side of the conflict you will enjoy this history and analysis of the Loyalist terror groups. Ignore the other reviewer's bias, this is well written and I highly recommend it.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Book On The Incompetent Loyalist Paramilitaries, March 31, 2002

By 

D. A. Leonard "devintvi" (Albuquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Loyalists: War and Peace in Northern Ireland (Hardcover)

This is actually a very good book it shows the plight of both Nationalists and Unionists in Northern Ireland, but more importantly it shows how the Loyalist paramilitaries(the UDA and UVF) although not nearly as powerfull or as well trained as the Republican IRA and INLA, have never the less been able to kill over 900 hundred Catholic civilians. The book does a good job making a distinction between members of the UDA and UVF like Gusty Spence, who did not want to hurt Catholic civilians, and depraved killers like Johnny Adair and Billy Wright, who only killed innocent unarmed men and women. The one thing the book shows exceptionally well is how the UDA and UVF were Ultimately no match for the seasoned IRA(although they try to stoke thier inflated ego's by saying they were winning against the IRA when everyone agrees they were actually losing).