Bandit Country: The IRA and South Armagh

Product Information

No one side is presented in a purely negative or positive light; as in real life, there are many shades of grey. This point helpfully dispels the myth that the old IRA were good guys, completely unlike the modern Provisional movement. However , this information heavy book at least gives some insight into what the conflict is about and how it is fought. While the book is based on a lot of interviews and a fair amount of secondary reading (as evinced by the bibliography), it is not properly referenced. This book is a must read and if you are only to ever read one book on the situation in Northern Ireland, well this is it.

The academic trend in COIN has been to take several isolated guerrilla campaigns and analyze them for kernels of wisdom to apply to Iraq and Afghanistan. He had been arrested following an IRA mortar attack on the RUC barracks in Newry, which spectacularly wiped out nine of the paramilitary police force's members. His bestseller Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story of Britain's War in Afghanistan (Quercus, 2011) was winner of the 2012 Orwell Prize.Loses points for its slight - and in the light of recent conclusive official confirmation of systematic British Army-RUC-UDR-Loyalist collusion, absolutely ridiculous - bias towards 'official' viewpoints on the sources of violence and evidence of security force misconduct and injustice towards the Nationalist community. Patterson shows us how the militarised boundary line of old has morphed into an invisible and semi-wild frontier, where the ghosts of a thirty-year war continue to haunt the ‘ceasefire generation’. The author, rightly, does not give his writing any political slant and simply narrates the tit for tat exchanges in a neutral voice. South Armagh was described as 'Bandit Country' by Merlyn Rees when he was Northern Ireland Secretary and for nearly three decades it has been the most dangerous posting in the world for a British soldier. Covering the period from the late 70s through early 2000s, he provides subtantive context for the pivotal (often violent) events in the British/Loyalist/Republican tensions.

Even Harnden's sources within the British security forces admit they feared yet grudgingly respected the South Armagh IRA's ingenuity and ruthless determination. From a point of history it is interesting to read how troubled this period was and how much things seem to have moved on. Change country: -Select- Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Azerbaijan Republic Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Islands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Cook Islands Costa Rica Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Republic Gambia Georgia Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Namibia Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Republic of Croatia Republic of the Congo Reunion Romania Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts-Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Suriname Swaziland Sweden Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City State Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands (U. Still, the level of violence, murder, and lawlessness carried out by the Provisional IRA in South Armagh was off the charts.It is also written in an accessible way, aimed not just at the Northern Ireland aficionado but also at the general reader who wants to find out what the IRA is about. But there are also details of how loyalist paramilitaries were assisted by RUC members - I want this book to be read by both 'sides' in the conflict rather than seen as a polemical work pushing a particular political agenda.