Eamonn McCann
War and an Irish Town
An extremely interesting read split between the author's description of and involvement in the "troubles" aka insurrection in the late 60s and early 70s in Derry. This was when Catholic enclaves in Derry, Belfast and other Northern Irish cities and towns were being violently assaulted by Protestant militias and police which led to the British Army coming in to restore order. But soon enough sided with the Protestants and added to the violence and killings. The analysis is about why things happened as they did and the lost opportunities to create a class based movement to involve the downtrodden Protestant working class in a revolutionary movement. McCann then goes through Irish history in the 20th century including partition in the 20s and how business / capitalism on both sides of the border ensured that there would be no revolutionary movement uniting both sides of the religious divide although at times this did happen. An interesting point made is that as the independent Republic of Ireland became ruled by the Catholic Church which both pushed government policy and overruled that which it didn't like this played into the hands of Northern Irish Protestant leaders who told their workers that any involvement with the Catholic working class movements would push the North towards unification with the South and therefore Rule by Rome. Although scare mongering to some extent McCann makes clear that this was not untrue and is therefore against the Catholic Church at least in it's meddling in politics. But don't religious leaders always do that. My copy included an update from the early 90s when the IRA were bombing the British mainland and before the Good Friday Agreement. A very interesting and readable book. Recommended.
Updated...
