The Sinn Féin office is located in a what could hardly be called a luxury building in what seems to be a mostly deserted area of West Belfast. In the room where I sit, there is a one-bar electric fire, a couple of mismatched chairs and little else. Somewhere on the outside a band is practicing, the drums that one usually associates with Loyalists are getting a fair belting from … [Read more...] about Ourselves Alone: An Interview with Gerry Adams
The Troubles
The Exile
By Pete Hamill
October 1986
A Story of Ireland Whenever Michael Walsh thought he was finished at last with Ireland, all of it would come flooding back, like a sudden wave on a glassy sea. He had tried to rid himself of that sad green country with cheap whiskey in too many bad bars in a city that was not his own. And now, on this perfect spring day in his eleventh year of New York exile, he could feel … [Read more...] about The Exile
Wild Irish Women: Bernadette
After 800 years of colonial rule, Ireland finally got conditional freedom and fell victim to the British Empire’s deadliest legacy, partition. In the six northern counties, bigotry and resentment simmered over the years until it broke wide open in 1968. Then along came Bernadette. In the beginning, there was a single face that symbolized the conflict, a passionate college … [Read more...] about Wild Irish Women: Bernadette
Understanding Northern Ireland’s “Troubles”
By Peter Quinn
IA Newsletter, August 13, 2022
IA Newsletter, August 13, 2022
Quarantines are not without their benefits. During the early months of the pandemic, I was able to reduce my bedside leaning tower of books before it toppled over on my head. Two of the best deal with Northern Ireland. Together they are essential to understanding the conflict. Maurice Fitzpatrick’s John Hume in America: From Derry to DC tells the story of a man who, in the face … [Read more...] about Understanding Northern Ireland’s “Troubles”
Growing Unrest in
Northern Ireland
April 17, 2021
By Deaglán de Bréadún
Concern has been growing in Ireland, north and south, that the Troubles which caused so many deaths and injuries for thirty years from the late Sixties until the end of the Nineties might be on the way back. The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement was concluded in April 1998, with former US Senator George Mitchell chairing the negotiations, … [Read more...] about Growing Unrest in
Northern Ireland