Get Access Making Sense Of The Troubles: A History Of The Northern Ireland Conflict Authored By David McKittrick Disseminated As Digital Format
the sitelinkGaddis Cold War book, this is a great history primer: it explains what happened clearly and carefully, covers the key figures and what they did etc.
, without the mass of detail that might overwhelm the reader who shamefully saw all this stuff on the news for decades but had a minimal idea of the context.
After visiting Belfast I got very interested in learning more about the Troubles, This book gives a good overview of the history, It does not dive too deep into specific events, which I think is a good thing when you wish to get a more general impression, Absolutely recommend if you wish to learn about the history of the Troubles, Growing up on the other side of the world from Northern Ireland, IRA bombings and shootings were regularly reported, in such a way that I always worried that if I ever went to England, the IRA would get me.
The reporting was very onesided the words "sectarian violence" were used frequently but there was very little reporting of any violence carried out by the loyalist factions and not a lot of background of any kind.
It makes me wonder whether, if the IRA had not been active in England, we would have heard much about the Troubles in my part of the world at all.
This book provides what is probably as level and evenhanded an account of the Troubles as can be expected, or is possible, given the multitude of emotional, political, social and cultural factors in play.
Its greatest asset for me was in theth century historical background I'd learned about the plantation of Protestants into Ireland in thethth centuries and therising at school but little else.
All those gaps were filled in here, It does leave you feeling unfulfilled, because there isn't really an emotionally satisfying "ending" but then, that's the reality,
My one complaint and it probably relates only to the Kindle edition of the book is that "Derry" constantly appears as "Deny", more so in the first few chapters.
It's quite distracting. I assume it's to do with the conversion to Kindle edition, Born in, into a posttroubles heavily Protestant east Antrim, there was a lot of my upbringing that I never questioned or considered,
I went to Protestant churches, schools and groups, I didnt understand what Catholicism was or why there was one primary school with children we were discouraged from playing with, until high school when I found out a friend in my year was catholic, and later asked my parents about it.
Politics was not discussed.
I never questioned my British Nationality, Prince Charles opened a yatch clubminutes from my house, or the parades of July during which all the lampposts for miles around would fly the Union Jack and Ulster flag.
The names of Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams were mere boogymen, To be conjured as insult on the teenage playground, “You fancy Gerry Adams!” “Would you rather kiss Gerry Adams or marry Ian Paisley”
years of high school history taught me of William the Conqueror, Black Death, Henry VIII and World War One.
This book filled the vastly empty hole of my own history, culture and perception, I finally found answers to what happened in my nations past, my peoples problems, Im so great full for resources like this as the mere mention of crosscommunity can be taboo and offputting, It doesnt help that my legally required education contained none of this,
The ignorance and turning of a blindeye of the troubles is troubling haha to say the least, And not just in Northern Ireland, I still get ticked off when everyone outside of NI calls me Irish, despite me telling them why I would prefer it if they called me northern Irish.
Its been a long struggle of northern Irish people pining for Irish and British attention and both being disappointed by halfhearted commitments, Northern Ireland, the forgotten child in the divorce and we see a repeat of these problems in Brexit,
Anywayyyyyyyy sorry for the long rant, Basically my education and opinions still have room to grow, but this has been a great start, I hope the future of NI keeps on an upward path and that the stubbornness of communities dilutes over time, One can only hope
This book is a chronological summary of more thanyears of the troubles of Northern Ireland, In essence, "This is what happened in thes, this is what happened in thes, etc, "
The chronology can be summed up like this: sectarian violence, despair, hope for peace, distrust of the peace process, sectarian violence, . . cycle repeats ad nauseum with a rotating cast of characters through the decades,
I felt the book would have been much improved had it opened with a scene far in the future, describing the carnage of a roadside bomb, leading up to the question: "So how did we get here" That would be a dramatic way of setting up the book and making the reader more interested in how the ancient conflict began.
Instead, the book opens with this clunker of paragraph: "The observation that nothing is more remote than the recent past is particularly applicable to the Northern Ireland troubles, since the understandable instinct of many people has been to shy away from them.
For very many people it was a terrible period, in which a generation grew up not knowing peace or stability, "
Um, yeah. Thank you for stating the obvious,
In terms of providing an overview, the book does its job, But most of the time, it's dry reading, Furthermore, since I'm not familiar with Irish/British politics, the multitude of names, organizations, paramilitary groups, acronyms, and political positions are difficult to follow,
Some of the most engaging parts of the book are descriptions of paramilitary attacks, victim responses direct quotations, and excerpts from the memoirs of former political leaders.
But these are a small fraction of the book,
For example, deadly bombings that happened during the troubles may get a page or two at most, then it's on to something else, I wanted to know more about major events like these, but that would not be in keeping with the Making Sense of the Troubles's purpose, which is to provide a broad overview.
Anyway, I'm thankful that I understand more about the troubles now, but just wish the book hadn't been so dry and required so much effort to read.
Really interesting read, makes a great job of taking the reader through a really complicated and difficult time, Crisp, unbiased, indepth exploration of the political history of Northern Ireland, Well written, interesting and insightful, This book started out slow, but then it picked up about halfway through, It provides important information for understanding the troubles in Northern Ireland, I learned so much about this part of Northern Ireland's history, I will definitely keep what I learned in mind when I am visiting Northern Ireland this month, Fantastic and balanced history of The Troubles, I learned a ton. The authors did a great job of of incorporating historical context into the book so that events of thes could be traced back to decisions made back in thes.
Highly recommend for anyone looking for Irish/UK history, Good for accuracy, not so good for background
Making Sense stays true to its objective, to tell a straightforward and gripping story in an accessible way.
It is a straightforward read,
But is it a good read Yes, if you dont want to be bogged down with preTroubles history too simplistically outlined in the book or dont need to understand the ideologies of unionism and nationalism per se.
In this way, Making Sense feels written for a general English/benign foreign audience,
However, if you know some Irish history and/or can appreciate the ethnonationalist competition in Northern Ireland, then you may very well be let down.
The factual reportage in Making Sense is flawless, but the story told is not neutral, Of course, no account of the Troubles can be, Yet after reading Making Sense, one leaves with a sense that: a Northern Protestants really dont like Catholics b republican violence stems from a ideological struggle while loyalist violence is just sectarian hatred c the British government could have done more fromforward, but were frustrated by intransigent unionists.
All entirely acceptable to believe if one wishes, but by no means a neutral or fair position,
Thus, I was disappointed that Making Sense didnt try harder to place the Troubles in an allIreland context, This would require more history, but would help explain some unionist perspective as well as the sometimes variable relationship between the Irish Republican government and Northern nationalists.
For the general reader, I would recommend A Pocket History of Ulster, by Brian Bardon ISBNx, For more detail, try A History of Northern Ireland, by Thomas Hennessey ISBN, who has also written a book on the Northern Ireland peace process ISBN,.
First thing I've ever read about NI history, and it's a clear, fair, concise, nobullshit introduction to a fascinating, complicated, and highly emotive subject, If only all history books were this objective! I knew very little about the troubles, After visiting Belfast and taking a black taxi tour, I wanted to learn more, This book was fantastic: comprehensive, not overwhelming, and the perfect length, I highly recommend it. Making Sense Of The Troubles is a very good place to start if your knowledge of the events in Northern Ireland is poor or scattered like mine was.
The text is easy to understand and follow, Essential reading at the moment when tensions are once again on the rise in NI, It was exactly what I was looking for to help me understand what took place, The authors also I thought managed to provide a very fair and neutral picture of the events,
The authors explain from the start that the book can only ever give a general overview of the events and that is indeed true, I was often left curious about finding out more about specific events, groups or people that this book can only gloss over Bloody Sunday is rushed through in just a couple pages for example.
I also struggled to truly understand what the IRA stood for,how it operated, how it's leaders controlled it ,or how it was deeply linked to other underground and illegal networks drugs, guns, etc.
If you're looking for something more focused on the IRA then this may not be the book you're looking for,
Nevertheless it was rich in information and successfully outlined the intricacies of the troubles from thes to, Would recommend for anybody looking to understand the Troubles, I am a complete novice when it comes to the history of Ireland and Northern Ireland, so I come to the subject with an open mind and as a book with blank pages waiting to be filled in.
I was born just a few years after the “The Troubles” began and while conscious that they were occurring, I never really knew much more about them than the violence that was reported on the evening news.
I knew that there were problems but I didnt know what those problems were, Throughout my education, mentions of “The Troubles” and details of Irish history were sparing, Truth be told, even though Im of Irish heritage I really didnt pay the subject much mind until I read A, F. N. Clarkes book Contact last year, That book along with tweets from some Irish hams that I follow prompted me to want to read and learn more about the topic, I began searching for on Amazon and Making Sense of the Troubles: The Story of the Conflict in Northern Ireland by David McKittrick and David McVea caught my eye and it seemed to be a good comprehensive starting point on the Troubles.
"The Troubles have left behind a terrible legacy, of dead and wounded on all sides, scarring people it affected both directly and indirectly, not only in Northern Ireland but also across the British Isles, in a way that may take generations to heal.
At one time many people thought the conflict was simply insoluble, "
As I read about the players in Northern Ireland, the Unionists, Republicans, and Nationalists I was pleased that the authors didnt favor one group over the other.
There wasnt any judgment of one over the others there wasnt any taking of sides, Where there was violence perpetrated by a group, it was attributed to them without an effort to justify why, The parties were presented warts and all, Prior to reading Making Sense of the Troubles and Contact before it, I knew that there was hostility and violence from both sides but I never knew the extent of it on the Unionist side.
Before reading Making Sense of the Troubles I didnt understand the extent of how the Catholics were repressed in Northern Ireland marginalized and forced out of the political process, denied equal chances at housing and education, and generally repressed by the Protestant majority.
Likewise, when it came to how Great Britain and Ireland became involved, there was no preference, Mistakes by the government werent glossed over, I wasnt aware of how the British government put “The Troubles” on the back burner and overlooked Northern Ireland until things got to the point it could no longer be ignored.
It seemed to me that the authors took as objective approach as possible on a topic in which it would be very easy to take sides,
"Peace came to Northern Ireland because the truculent parties got the best that was available to them after taking decades to work out that they had been pursuing political fantasies, not because Blair or anyone else showered them with wisdom and grace or applied any particular genius to contriving a deal.
"
McKittrick and McVea chronicled the acts of violence and how the effects that had on “The Troubles” and the relationships between the parties involved but they also placed an emphasis on personalities and how the various personalities had an effect on the development of “The Troubles” and the negotiations and peace process in Northern Ireland.
O'Neill, Faulkner, Paisley, Trimble, Hume, Adams, and others are presented as objectively as possible with mention of the successes as well as failures and shortcomings, Hume, Adams, and Paisley are mentioned as the three dominant figures but I see Trimble as a fourth dominant figure, Once vehemently opposed to working with Sinn Fein, he came around and led his party to take part in the peace process, He and Hume are the two personalities I came away with the most respect for, Paisley, although dominant is one that I found difficulty in forming any respect for quite honestly, he reminds me of some of the politicians in our government today.
I would have to say that the jury is out on Adams I don't know quite what to make of him whether he was genuinely interested in the peace process or whether he was being opportunistic.
"Whether the new government system succeeds or fails, however, there is a widespread sense that a corner has been turned, It is too much to expect a future of friendship and harmony, for all those involved inflicted much damage on each other, Yet it is not too much to hope that the major campaigns of organised violence are in their last days, and that the death toll will continue to decline.
"
Ultimately, the authors conclude that while Nationalists have accepted the peace process, there is still a lot of skepticism on the part of the Unionists.
While many Nationalists have accepted that the problems North Ireland faces are complex and are participating in the peace process, many Unionists are dissatisfied with it, Despite the uncertainty this indicates, McKittrick and McVea conclude that there is a "widespread feeling that a corner has been turned, " While things aren't all unicorns and rainbows there is hope that the violence is ending and better times are ahead:
"Peace if there is to be peace, will always be imperfect, and there will always be controversy: yet for all that , it can be forecast with some confidence that the future will bring much improvement on the last three turbulent decades.
"
The rest of the book, A sizeable portion in fact, from thepoint in the Kindle version consists of a chronology of the troubles, In the Kindle version, it isnt as useful but in the print version I can see where it could be useful to keep a second bookmark in the chronology so you could flip back and forth between it and where
youre reading.
After reading Making Sense of the Troubles I know far more about them and far more about Northern Ireland in general, Do I understand “The Troubles” after reading the book No, I dont, but I dont blame that on the book I blame it on the subject matter itself.
It isnt an easy read, not because of the way its written but because what you read about is so often frustrating and depressing but you do come away from reading it with more knowledge on the “The Troubles” and the problems that Northern Ireland faced and continues to face, and will face in the future.
As someone who didnt have a lot of prior knowledge on the subject but wanted to learn more about it, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to do the same.
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