Customer Reviews

The Secret Army: The IRA

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the few books about the IRA, this book is a stunning masterpiece, beautiful from beggining to end. An absolute must-read!

For years, this and Tim Pat Coogan's book on the IRA stood as the only significant volumes on the subject. Both Bell and Coogan have kept their books in print by issuing "revised" versions every few years. The truth is, neither book was very good to begin with, though Bell's journalism and craftmanship is slightly ahead of Coogan's sloppy, slapdash approach. They both suffer from a similar problem - they seem to be written from a great distance from the subject, more like a series of newspaper reports than a thoughtful, fully realized nonfiction book. Bell's book (or Coogan's for that matter) can't hold a candle to Ed Maloney's "Secret History of the IRA," which is, quite simply, the definitive account of the IRA, especially in its analysis of Gerry Adams and the Peace Process.

If you are into detail, this is what you want. Forget your own politics, read and try to shut up until you get to the end. Then write! Goes VERY well w/ T.A. Jackson.s: IRELAND HER OWN.

This book is the best institutional history of the IRA and the Republican movement I have come across. It illuminates very clearly the dynamics of the conflict and the fundamental differences in perception and misreading of the other sides by all parties that has made this such a long war.