'Bandit Country': The IRA and South Armagh

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Yet the presence of Crossmaglen’s sprawling high-fenced police station with its reinforced concrete walls and cameras – PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne likened it to a “relic from the Cold War” – is a constant reminder of the past amid peacetime progress. I’m getting married ... you’re both invited’: The former IRA man, UVF ex-prisoner and retired British soldier who became friends ]

As you went along, you got to know who was who. The paratroopers were obviously the ones with the red hats. So if they were in town you were afraid to go outside the door because they were the worst. They would literally batter you if they got you on your own.

The American desire to hate communism - and those who turn to Communists, Totaltarians or evil Dictators for support.

At times an uncomfortable read at times but one which in many ways is fascinating...it tells the tale of the modern troubles from the period of the seventies through to a then shaky peace deal as we entered the millennium. Andrew is a former journalist who has always had a love of writing and a passion for reading good thrillers. Now he has finally put the two interests together. Before the changes that followed the Belfast Agreement, police only travelled through the area with the support of the British army. Photograph: Stephen Davison From a point of history it is interesting to read how troubled this period was and how much things seem to have moved on...I think a further book must exist somewhere which may shine a light on how far divisions have been healed as it seems incredulous to think that things are now chunky dory as the separations between community's ran deep at times through the period recorded.You go through your life and think, ‘ah that’s not really having any effect on me’ and then I had my own issues obviously,” McConville says. It is a story that covers many aspects of IRA, The Real IRA, Sinn Fein and also the thoughts and feelings of the people on the streets. The mistrust, the distrust and the fear to hope things will actually change for the best as well as showing the frustrations of the dissidents at grass root level. Darran Anderson understands only too well the importance that a sense of place like this has. As a writer and academic from Derry, Anderson’s focus has tended toward psychogeography in general and architecture in particular. In 2016 he published Imaginary Cities, an excellent study into the history of planned urban centres that never came into being. I’d first learned about the Troubles as a kid when I learned my grandpa emigrated from Ireland at 10 years old and due to the conflict didn’t want to talk about it, violence or war at all.