The Manchurian Terrorist
According to Ed Moloney's 2002 book, the real hero behind the Good Friday Agreement that ended the Troubles of Northern Ireland a decade ago was not John Hume, David Trimble, or anyone else who claimed a Nobel Prize for his efforts. It was Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein and de facto head of its terrorist arm, the Provisional IRA.
Even as Adams talked tough and consolidated power from within, "The Secret History Of The IRA" depicts him reaching out to the British power structure and Irish leaders down south, the final fruit of which would be the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Adams' methods brought peace, Moloney reports, however ruthless, deceptive, perhaps even treacherous.
Pressed by an IRA leader about his talk of peace, Adams is said to have replied: "Your problem is that you mind too much about the lies." Adams himself had no such compunctions.
It's a real statement of Adams' worth as a human being that even an ostensibly positive account of his career, as "Secret History" undeniably is, winds up painting him as a homicidal rubbish pile.
When Protestant troublemakers ran riot through the Catholic district of Ballymurphy in West Belfast in 1969, Adams was there holding his IRA comrades at gunpoint, determined to see the hated foe exact maximum damage on an innocent population and thus radicalize them.
As he rose through IRA ranks, he lined up in his sights fellow leaders who read the winds and talked about cease-fires and negotiations, challenging their bona fides and kicking them out. All this time he secretly pursued negotiations himself.
When a shipment of arms meant for the IRA sailed in from Libya in 1987, British authorities swooped in, informed unquestionably by a high-level IRA source. By this time, Adams's negotiations were getting results, and he no doubt would have had his hands full controlling a highly-armed base of followers. Moloney dances around the obvious contention, that Adams himself twigged the Crown to keep his initiative alive.
Moloney dances around a lot of things in his book, including chronology and sources. His footnotes are so sketchy, referring repeatedly to unnamed IRA members and former members, to make them pointless. He knows his subject, and presents the IRA fairly, if at times a bit too sympathetically. I can't fault his viewpoint, but his perspective seems off: By crediting Adams with so much, he shortchanges other players like Hume and almost entirely ignores the biggest prod to Adams' deradicalization: As violence continued, the IRA grew more hated in counties both North and South.
Adams' journey seems in hindsight a natural response to this, by someone whose purpose in life centered always around himself. If the Irish are Europe's African-Americans, Adams is the Catholic Al Sharpton, engendering divisions and ignoring the human cost.
Moloney might disagree with me on this, but his book, in its obtuse, disconnected way, makes a similar case.
informative
the degree of knowledge the author has acquired on the workings of this secret organization is remarkable.
Irish Roots
I finally visited Ireland a couple of years ago. The typical American seeking their Irish roots. On my mother's side her Irish ancestors are from the South and on father's side from the North. His ancestors are Scots-Irish.
What was very interesting was my tour of Northern Ireland where the "Troubles" were fought. The murals were an eye-opener.
What was really noticeable was the difference of economies between a now prosperous Southern Ireland compared to a lesser economy of Northern Ireland. You knew a war must have been fought here. My tour was one of the first for vistors since the "Troubles" ended and I was told Northern Ireland had very much improved since then. This gave an idea of how much the Northern Ireland had lagged behind the rest of the country.
I desired to learn more about the "Troubles" and this book certainly provides an understanding about the early history of Northern Ireland and the IRA. This is a serious read and may not be the definitive book about the IRA yet it could be.
The author lived there during the "Troubles" and was an active reporter researching and interviewing many of the participants of the IRA and others. This is different from a lot of history books as many of these events are first hand accounts of the parties involved.
I especially found the glossary of terms, chronology, printed documents and information about the personnel very helpful in understanding the "Troubles".
The author attempts to present a fair and balanced view of the "Troubles" but this is the secret history of the IRA. He seems to tell it like it was but does not label the IRA as terrorists.
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