Northern Protestants: an unsettled people

Susan McKay, 2005

This book is regarded as groundbreaking. Based on in-depth interviews with a wide range of Northern Protestants, the author presents an uncompromising examination of the Protestants of Northern Ireland. The late David Ervine said that every Protestant should read it. We say that everyone should read it!

A Secret History of the IRA

By Ed Moloney, 2002

This book is a “must read” for anyone who wants an understanding of the IRA.

Spanning three decades and several continents, Moloney reveals the inner workings of the organisation including its links to Arab terrorism.

The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty

By Sebastian Barry, 1998

Speaks eloquently on the ramifications of the politics of unrest on individual lives. A happy Sligo childhood in the early 1900’s gives way to an Ireland wracked by violence and conflict. Unable to find work in the depressed times after World War I, Eneas joins the R.I.C., a decision that alters the course of his life. Branded a traitor by Irish nationalists and pursued by IRA hitmen, Eneas is forced to flee.

Call my Brother Back

By Michael McLaverty, 1939

Belfast writers, including Glenn Patterson, regard this as the “must read” novel about Belfast. Set in the 1920s, it is in many ways a model for novels of the later Troubles, approaching political violence through the experience of one family, the MacNeills. Amid the police raids and gun battles, the passages that linger are of school life, of kickabouts on waste ground and Sunday walks.

The Long Road to Peace in Northern Ireland

Marianne Elliott (Editor) 2001

The impetus for this book was the series of Peace Lectures given at Liverpool University’s Institute of Irish Studies. The lectures were intended as a means for those involved in peace negotiations to share their insights and experiences with a wider audience.

Cal

By Bernard MacLaverty, 1983

Cal is the story of a Catholic teenager growing up in a mostly Protestant neighbourhood in Northern Ireland. 

Cal drives a getaway car after a Protestant is murdered and is tortured by the memory. His life is complicated by his growing love for the wife of the murdered man.

Cal is one of the finest novels to emerge from the Northern Ireland conflict.

Making Sense of the Troubles: a history of the Northern Ireland conflict

By David McKittrick & David McVea, 2001

This is the story of “The Troubles”, of the society out of which the strife erupted and of the peace into which the North is uneasily settling. Joanna Braniff, Irish News, says this book should be compulsory reading for everyone in Northern Ireland.

Reading in the Dark

By Seamus Deane, 1996

This novel is set in Derry and is about a boy’s coming of age and ‘The Troubles’ of Northern Ireland from partition  in the 1920’s to Bloody Sunday. The story incorporates the violence, chaos, sectarian division and discrimination of the time. However, the narrator always maintains a sense of hope throughout.

Hope and History: making peace in Ireland

By Gerry Adams, 2003

Gerry Adams reveals the truth behind the headlines of how the peace process began and how it was brought to fruition. He looks at the covert talks between the Republicans and the British government, the Irish-American role, and the final negotiations.

A farewell to arms? Beyond the Good Friday Agreement

By Michael Cox, Adrian Guelke & Fiona Stephen, 2006

This book provides an assessment of the Good Friday Agreement and explains why it has yet to reach its full potential. The authors combine a deep analysis of the domestic situation with a discussion of the international context into which the Agreement has to evolve.