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This is part of a series of books that detail every killing during the Northern Ireland troubles, in this case looking at the period 1984-87, most famous for the bombing of the Grand Hotel at Brighton during the Conservative Party conference. However the vast majority of deaths occurred in Northern Ireland.
The book is organised month by month, covering each death in chronological order, as well as other significant attacks. In many cases we get eye witness accounts, by members of the security forces, family members of the murder victims and survivors of these attacks. Even ‘quiet’ months some several murders, normally carried out in a cynical and cowardly way (by both sets of terrorists). Its fair to say this isn’t a book to read from cover to cover, but more of a reference work – the constant stream of atrocities is rather hard to take otherwise!
For me this book would be far more effective if the facts were presented in a more dispassionate manner. Wharton is understandably angry about the killings in Northern Ireland, and totally condemns both Republican and ‘Loyalist’ terrorists, but his venom is directed particularly at the IRA and their supporters, in particular in the United States. Admittedly 60% of the murders were committed by the Republics, compared to 30% by Loyalists, and the IRA was probably responsible for over half of all murders, including hundreds of civilians, so some anger is allowable. This period also included several examples where only luck prevented even more civilian deaths, such as the moment when an IRA rocket missed its target and hit a class room full of primary school children, but luckily failed to explode. However in a book of this nature a largely dispassionate approach will always be more effective and more convincing. The author covers kills carried out by the Loyalist terrorists and takes a similar tone.
His approach to the Security Forces is that most of the time their actions were entirely justified, and I find it hard to argue with that. The vast majority of examples from this time period came during active terrorist attacks, where either through luck or planning armed Security Forces were in the right place at the right time. Faced with an armed opponent determined to kill them, the Security Forces were entirely entitled to respond with lethal force. The picture is a bit more blurred with those shootings that took place at checkpoints, in this case including at least one case of a joy rider shot when they failed to stop at a checkpoint. Again one can understand the point of view of the individual members of the Security Forces, well aware that any car behaving that way could be carrying armed terrorists, but there is a question about the validity of some of the checkpoints.
There is plenty to get angry about – the IRA’s attitude to the conflict was appallingly hypocritical, carrying out ruthless attacks on unarmed opponents, always with the intention of killing, and then complaining loudly when the Security Forces shot back. Their victims included many of their own members, often falsely believed have become informants, as well as many civilians, some deliberately targeted, others just unlucky enough to be nearby when the bullets, rockets or bombs went off.
Part One: 1984
Part Two: 1985
Part Three: 1986
Part Four: 1987
Author: Ken Wharton
Edition: Hardcover
Pages: 376
Publisher: Helion
Year: 2016