This is perhaps the first comprehensive review of the military involvements in Northern Ireland by the British Army. – The author has set the historical scene and then provided a compelling account of the series of actions that were required under the overall operation in Ulster – Highly Recommended.
NAME: Operation Banner, The British Army in Northern Ireland, 1969- 2007 FILE: R2563 AUTHOR: Nick van der Bijl PUBLISHER: Pen & Sword BINDING: soft back PAGES: 272 PRICE: £12.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: Insurgents, counter insurgency, tactics, equipment, personnel, political will, asymmetric warfare, covert warfare, terrorism, religious division, civil liberty, murder, terror, bombings
ISBN: 1-47389-895-1
IMAGE: B2563jpg BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/ybn248gv LINKS: DESCRIPTION: This is perhaps the first comprehensive review of the military involvements in Northern Ireland by the British Army. - The author has set the historical scene and then provided a compelling account of the series of actions that were required under the overall operation in Ulster – Highly Recommended. Conflict in Ireland has existed as far as history is recorded. When Alcock and Brown were interviewed before their successful trans- Atlantic flight, they were asked how they would know which country they had landed in. They said that if they found a couple making love in a haystack they would know it was France, if they found a group of men playing cricket it had to be England, but if they found two men in a bog beating each other with lumps of wood they would know they had reached Ireland. That may have been an attempt at humour but it did sum up a popular view of life in Ireland, where there would be conflict with anyone who was considered an outsider but, if all 'outsiders' were expelled, the conflict would carry on between the indigenous population. The last two men standing might have long been allies but were then fighting the only opponent available. Whatever the background and the reasons for hundreds of years of civil strife in Northern Ireland, the 'recent troubles' began in 1969 as civil rights campaigners created demonstrations that were taken over by the men of violence and responded to by another group of men of violence. The British Government was placed in an impossible position. They had to restore stability and deal with the growing violence in what was and is a part of the United Kingdom, where the majority expressed a clear desire to remain a part of the UK. The only option was to send in the Army and initially they were welcomed as saviours by both sides of the conflict. However, soldiers are never the ideal solution to restore civil peace. It is also very easy for terrorists to paint them as 'invaders'. Violence continues and escalates. That is what happened in Northern Ireland in a repeat of the bitter civil war and genocide in the Irish Republic when it became independent from the UK. Some of those living in Ulster in 1969 were refugees, or children of refugees, from the sectarian extremism in the Irish Republic. The spiral of violence inevitably increased and was exported by the IRA to other parts of the UK. Had the Army not been sent in, increasing violence would have occurred anyway. Another army might have brutally cracked down on the civil population, but the British Army operated with restraint and some tolerance and humour, leading to conditions where a peace could be formally established. How long that peace will hold remains to be seen. The IRA godfathers continued to operate after the power sharing had been agreed and at the time of the publication of this new book, the IRA political arm has withdrawn from the power sharing government which may force the suspension of the Government in Northern Ireland and the return of rule from Westminster. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the men of violence in the IRA political arm are hoping to force the return of British troops to Ulster in the hope of promoting a new IRA terror campaign.