Bandit Country: The IRA and South Armagh

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In this acclaimed work of reportage, originally published in 2000, Toby Harnden stripped away the myth and propaganda associated with the region to produce one of the most compelling and important books on the Troubles. I would rate his hypothesis as understandable, but fairly typical of the British colonial mentality when dealing with Irish Republican areas. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.

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This point helpfully dispels the myth that the old IRA were good guys, completely unlike the modern Provisional movement. However, in total, the book provides a good starting point to those with an interest in this most recent, unresolved period of Irish history. The book links the IRA's success during the Troubles to the history of lawlessness and rebellion in the area - which is referred to by republican's as "God's Country". I grew up in that era and still remember the frequency of news stories about bombs and shootings so I had trouble putting the book down as it brought back a lot of memories.He tries to make the case that, even pre-partition, the Fewes area, which includes South Armagh, was quite a bellicose proposition for the British colonial invaders to conquer. A dual British and US citizen, he spent a decade as a Royal Navy officer before becoming a journalist.

I'm not sure how successful this was as there where times when the commentary did seem slanted in regard upholding the 'bandit county' title of the book. Based on the quality of First Casualty, I knew this would be a solid story with in depth interviews of as many people on both sides. South Armagh was described as "Bandit Country" by Merlyn Rees when he was Northern Ireland Secretary, and for nearly three decades it has been the most dangerous posting in the world for a British soldier. The Irish Republican History Museum in Belfast has over 5000 artifacts that chronicle the history of resistance to the British occupation of Ireland.

It really makes you feel what it was like to be on the ground, and gives you a great understanding of how the region's history of ungovernability relates to the events of the Troubles. An terrific description of the IRA's history and recent operations in South Armagh, one of the most notorious areas of Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The author, rightly, does not give his writing any political slant and simply narrates the tit for tat exchanges in a neutral voice. One example is the ludicrous suggestion that the Fergal Caraher shooting was justified, or that individual examples of Garda-PIRA collusion are in some way comparable to the systematic and endemic collusion across all ranges of the security forces in the North with loyalist death squads. Collins had at one time been the chief Provisional IRA 'intelligence officer' in the nearby city of Newry but had agreed to turn Queen's Evidence, aka Supergrass, against his former comrades.

The SAS men of Ulster Troop are the best in the world at surveillance, unsurpassed in counter-insurgency techniques. But there are also details of how loyalist paramilitaries were assisted by RUC members - I want this book to be read by both 'sides' in the conflict rather than seen as a polemical work pushing a particular political agenda. Though it is not entirely about him the figure that keeps coming up again and again is that of Thomas "Slab" Murphy, currently awaiting appeal for his conviction in British court on tax evasion and related charges.

While certainly not the intent of this pre-9/11 book, it was difficult not to draw loose parallels between the indigenous/occupier dynamic described in Northern Ireland and those the US is wrestling with in Afghanistan (the guerrilla's exploitation of popular support for insurgent propaganda and operational assistance; the insurgents' use of improvised munitions; questionable counterinsurgent legal procedures; the self-imposed isolation of counterinsurgent military forward bases; the roles of intelligence and counterintelligence; etc).