The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal and the Search for Peace: Ireland's Ordeal and the Search for Peace

While Coogan's Nationalist Opinions shine through like a beacon, his revelations and information appear to be incredibly well-researched. It amazes me how bigotry on the part of Unionists (especially Ian Paisley, who appears to have given birth to the Northern Ireland version of the Ku Klux Klan), closed-minded denial on the part of British politicians, and high-handedness of the British Army brought about the failure of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement and led to the accession of the IRA. Even the most unbiased person, when given all the objective facts -- which Coogan's writings amply demonstrate that the British government for years effectively censored such facts -- leads to the inexorable conclusion that British and Unionists played the biggest role in leading Northern Ireland to the violence of the Troubles, and that these entities themselves created a level of violence and murder equivalent to that perpetuated by the IRA. This book is a definitive work on the issues that still plague Northern Ireland.