Good Friday Review: Days Like These

Sam Millar reviews Good Friday: The Death of Irish Republicanism for Verbal Magazine.

"Despite its academically-inclined leanings, readers should not be put off, as the book is compulsive reading and offers at times a very accessible insight to the key events and personalities which have shaped the contemporary history of the Republican Movement from the early 70s to present day."

They haven’t gone away, you know…or have they? Sam Millar finds out in this insightful new book by a former Republican prisoner.
Verbal Magazine

When a book boasts a monumental declaration such as the death of Irish Republicanism, it had better stand up to scrutiny.

And so it was with relish I tucked into Anthony McIntyre’s Good Friday, seeking not a full dinner, but at least some tasty morsels. McIntyre is a former republican prisoner, imprisoned for killing a loyalist paramilitary. He took part in the Blanket Protest against the criminalisation of political prisoners in the H Blocks. Upon his release, he finished his PhD at Queen’s University, Belfast, and went on to become the blogger of the now defunct The Blanket. It’s from this website that most, if not all, the contents of his book - or diary - originate. For his outspoken and mostly articulate comments against the leadership of Sinn Fein, he was hounded, ostracised and even had his house picketed on numerous occasions, sometimes by former comrades, other times from rent-a-mob gangs – most of whom had never got their hands dirty during the bloody conflict.

The book starts rather shakily with a foreword from Ed Maloney in ‘New York’ dubiously informing any uneducated observer that the war waged by the IRA lasted for the best part of three decades and ‘produced a death toll of over 3,500…’ Puzzlingly, there is no mention of loyalist or security force involvement in that grisly death toll.

Thankfully, once Ed is sent back to ‘New York’ and McIntyre takes the helm, the sailing becomes a bit smoother – albeit not for republicans, I should hasten to add.
Despite its academically-inclined leanings, readers should not be put off, as the book is compulsive reading and offers at times a very accessible insight to the key events and personalities which have shaped the contemporary history of the Republican Movement from the early 70s to present day.

The book is most absorbing when it details happenings we think we’re familiar with: The Hunger Strikes, the brutal murder of Robert McCartney, Decommissioning, The Colombia Three, Stakeknife and, of course, The Good Friday Agreement. They are all there, critically analysed in a concise voice.

At times the book reads like a Shakespearean tragedy peppered with Greek irony; other times it reads like The Diary of Samuel Pepys or Orwell’s prophetically brilliant Animal Farm. Granted, the heroes are few in the inner pages, but there is a grand mix of Machiavellian villains headed by ‘The Big Lad’ and ‘Tombstone Tom’, respectively better known by their nom de plumes, Brownie and Liam Og. I will leave it to the discerning reader to uncover their true identities.

The author’s opinions will interest those looking for an alternative to the uncritical party voice of Sinn Fein, or those wishing to gain an insight into the machinations of life inside that organisation. Some within the breathing republican family will no doubt scoff at the idea of being classified as dead. Only time will tell if Doctor McIntyre’s grim prognosis of The Republican Movement is accurate or if, to paraphrase Mark Twain: its death has been greatly exaggerated, once again…

Good Friday: The Death of Irish Republicanism is an important book, gripping, honest and revelatory, it’s one that probably will not find it’s way onto Gerry Adams’ must-read list. It should, however, be on yours.

Read more by Sam Millar at http://www.millarcrime.com.

Good Friday, The Death of Irish Republicanism
is available at these online outlets:
Ausubo Press; Online Bookshop at Queens, Small Press Distribution.

You can also order directly from Gill & Macmillan:
Email sales@gillmacmillan.ie

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Call or Fax your order to: Tel: +353 1 500 9500 or Fax: +353 1 500 9599

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