Reddit reviews Making Sense Of The Troubles

We found 14 Reddit comments about Making Sense Of The Troubles. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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14 Reddit comments about Making Sense Of The Troubles:

u/elemeno90 · 28 pointsr/history

It was extremely violent. I would really recommend "Making Sense of the Troubles". It is an incredibly complicated subject, but the book distills it down pretty well. I used it as a reference for my thesis and I know that it is specifically used in some grad programs in Ireland. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Sense-Troubles-Northern-Conflict-y/dp/024196265X

u/Quail_eater · 8 pointsr/PropagandaPosters

I believe targets in a conflict are often the best indication of motives but there are other factors. The nature of many provisional-IRA civilian attacks involved bombings, many of which targeted business in an attempt to cripple the economy of Northern Ireland. These bombings were often pre-warned so many of the actual attacks had few casualties and only destroyed infrastructure. Of course this was not a perfect war plan, mistakes were made that lead to the deaths of hundreds of civilians one of the most disgusting atrocities of the troubles was the omagh bomb 1998 killing 29 people. A confusion in the RIRAs warning lead to the police forces directing people towards the bomb instead of away from it. Another atrocity from the IRA was the Eniskillen bombing, 11 civilians killed at a WW1 remembrance service, IRA claimed that it was targeting the army there. A theme of attack on military personnel and Infrastructure would suggest a more militaristic campaign that the IRA had been fighting since the 1910's.

Loyalists on the other hand were not in the same type of war, they were not fighting an 'Invasive Force' and many of the casualties were from within their own organisation they killed twice as many Loyalist as republican paramilitaries due to internal disputes. The atrocities they are well known for are the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, un-warned at rush hour with 33 deaths. The Shankill butchers, a gang of murders who abducted, tortured and killed at least 23 civilians in the most horrific ways possible. And a rogue gun-man 'Michael Stone' who attacked a cemetary during a funeral of 3 IRA members who were killed (Unarmed) by the SAS in Gibraltar. Stone killed three funeral attendants with grenades.

Of corse the lines defining Military organisation, paramilitary and thug or gangster are heavily blurred and many people will disagree with the points I have raised. Generally the republican paramilitaries had a more cohesive front with military experience from earlier days. The loyalist attacks seemed more sporadic, and down to the actions of gangs like the butchers or gunmen like stone.

Make your own conclusions, read Wikipedia on all the topics I mentioned if you want to go further Brian Feeney, Alvin Jackson, Dairmaid Ferriter, AJP Taylor have spent decades of research on the Troubles a good book for a start is http://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Sense-Troubles-Northern-Conflict/dp/024196265X

u/kirkbywool · 7 pointsr/AskEurope

I'm English but got an interest in Ireland as my city has lots of Irish people and was the only mainland city to elect a pro independence MP, and like most people here I have Irish grandparents and will probably get an Irish passport soon. It honestly depends who you ask, I've met northern Irish people who are adamant that they are British, others who don't believe in Northern Ireland and refer to it as 'the north of Ireland' and Irish people who don't care as long as there isn't violence. I've started reading this book which is fantastic https://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Sense-Troubles-Northern-Conflict/dp/024196265X

Really impartial and gives both sides views but tried to remain neutral and just give out the facts. I highly recommend it.

u/Hibernicvm · 6 pointsr/AskUK

Making Sense of the Troubles is probably the most comprehensive and even-handed book about NI

u/coinsinmyrocket · 5 pointsr/AskHistorians

I've still yet to read it (my reading list backlog is massive right now), but David McKittrick's Making Sense of the Troubles was recommended to me a few years ago by a friend as being a very in depth but accessible account of The Troubles and the lead up to the present era.

u/cmf194 · 5 pointsr/HistoryPorn

"Making Sense of the Troubles" by David McKittrick seemed pretty even-handed and comprehensive to me.
Amazon link

u/guly5ever · 5 pointsr/history

I spent the last year learning about The Troubles in Prof. Ian McBride's class at King's College London.

For a complete overview of the conflict, it doesn't get much better than Making Sense Of The Troubles by David McKittrick and David McVea. An astonishingly good read and it helped me a lot throughout last year.

For the best book on the IRA themselves, it has to be Richard English's Armed Struggle. Very in-depth, but in my opinion no better study exists.

I've seen Peter Taylor's Trilogy posted here too. I've only read 'Brits', but it was excellent so probably worth checking the others out.

If you're studying the conflict feel free to shoot me a PM as I haven't forgetten everything about it (yet).

u/klausbatb · 5 pointsr/AskEurope

Making Sense of the Troubles: A History of the Northern Ireland Conflict is a pretty fair examination of the conflict. As someone else said, you'd probably be as well to read about stuff from the start of the 20th century and even earlier to get a real sense of it, but the above book is a decent one to get into the meat of the conflict.

u/drearyspires · 3 pointsr/northernireland

I'd recommend this book: Making Sense of the Troubles: A History of the Northern Ireland Conflict by David McKittrick and David McVea. It was my starting point for learning about our history, helped the blinkers fall off.

u/aodhmacsuibhne · 2 pointsr/irishpolitics

For a comprehensive history of the North go for Bardon's A History of Ulster. Probably the best history of the province I'm familiar with. It starts at the very beginning though, a lot of context to wade through if you just want to rubberneck at the troubles.

For a take on more recent events Making Sense of The Troubles is always good and very readable.

I just finished reading Out of the Ashes: An Oral History of the Provisional Irish Republican Movement. It clearly deals mostly with the one side but it contextualises everything pretty well and contains a wealth of interviews spanning decades of research.

u/Kesuke · 2 pointsr/ukpolitics

I get the impression you aren't from the UK and your understanding of domestic politics here is very simplistic. Instead you seem to fall back on over-arching concepts (for example posting links to Vietnam era war crimes which have little relevance to a sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland) rather than the intricacies or specifics of the actual situation in Northern Ireland.

If you're actually interested in learning about the conflict I'd suggest this book as its relatively even-handed and focuses more on the personalities involved and the events that precipitated the conflict.

Part of the problem with the troubles is that the conflict is often misunderstood by people from outside the UK as being between two groups; The British state and Northern Irish separatists. However the reality was far more complex, The Troubles was fundamentally a sectarian conflict between Northern Irish Protestants and Northern Irish Catholics. By August of 1969 the situation in NI was beginning to spiral out of control as violence between the Catholic and Protestant populations was reaching a tipping point and the British had little option but to get involved militarily. Whilst some parts of the British state did provide support to the Protestant community, other parts of the state tried to arbitrate a lasting peace. Likewise elements within the Irish Republic did provide support to the Catholic separatists whilst other elements within the Irish state also tried to broker a settlement. Both sides committed atrocities against the other and there was also involvement by third parties, particularly in the USA and Russia with their own agendas.

In the end while the British army couldn't defeat the IRA despite their efforts to draw them out into an open conflict, they did succeed in denying the IRA the ability to win the conflict through terrorism. That meant by the 1990s the IRA were forced to accept that any lasting solution would have to be a non-violent one. The Troubles is an excellent lesson in how a modern state can broker peace in a seemingly 'unwinnable' conflict. As the conflict wore on the British increasingly tried to clamp down on the loyalist paramilitaries to prevent further escalation.

u/OptimumCorridor · 1 pointr/northernireland

Apparently Mark Carruthers' book is good for this, as is Making Sense of The Troubles. I hasten to add I am yet to get around to reading either of them, but have heard good things about both from academic types, contemporary journalists of the time, etc.

u/cptrambo · 1 pointr/IWantToLearn

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Sense-Troubles-Northern-Conflict/dp/024196265X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1420798123&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+troubles

u/Shafudo · 1 pointr/history