I have been following politics in Northern Ireland since the late 1980s and have visited several times. During my first stay in 1991, Belfast was still under military occupation, which left a deep impression on me.
During my latest visit in 2018, I did several interviews to report for German newspapers about how Brexit affected the political climate. I also try to keep up with new book releases and have recently read Liam Ó Ruairc’s Peace of Pacification? Northern Ireland After the Defeat of the IRA and the Patrick Magee memoir Where Grieving Begins.
The books couldn’t be more different. Peace of Pacification? is a rational, almost clinical, dissection of the so-called peace process. Where Grieving Begins is a personal account of an IRA volunteer involved in one of the most notorious IRA actions of all time, the so-called Brighton hotel bombing of 1984. The action killed five people who were staying in the Grand Brighton Hotel for the Tory’s party conference.
The books couldn’t be more different. Peace of Pacification? is a rational, almost clinical, dissection of the so-called peace process. Where Grieving Begins is a personal account of an IRA volunteer involved in one of the most notorious IRA actions of all time, the so-called Brighton hotel bombing of 1984. The action killed five people who were staying in the Grand Brighton Hotel for the Tory’s party conference.
Continue reading @ LeftTwoThree.
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