Ireland in the 1970s – a powerful new book by historian Diarmuid Ferriter

Ferriter's book about Ireland in the 1970s seems very interesting,especially when it discusses events north of the artificial Partition. The above article tells us that the Bloody Sunday massacre in Derry is discussed in this book, but I'd like to know if other massacres are also mentioned. These include killing of 11 people in Ballymurphy, Belfast, on the 2nd weekend of August, 1971. The dead included 3 20-year old men, a mother of 8 children, and an R.C. priest, Fr. Hugh Mullan. Anothe massacre would occur in the Springfield area of Belfast on 9 July, 1972, and the victims included Fr. Noel Fitzpatrick(40) John Butler (39), John Dougal (16), David McCafferty (15) and Magret Gragan (13). Between these two multible murder sprees, on Thurday, 21 Oct., 1971, Stormount Labour M.P Paddy Kennedy attempted to speak in Dáil Éireann while the North was being discussed, but he was rudely ejected from that chamber on orders of the Leas Cheann Comhairle (Deputy Speaker). The Belfast M.P. would NOT have sought bombs, bullets or even bandages, merely diplomatic assistance for his besieged constituents, but he was denied the opportunity to do so.

This book seems to have little of interest or originality to commend it. I wonder how much time the author devotes to itemizing the longstanding collusion between the Southern Irish ruling class and the Loyalist murder gangs, to such a lunatic extent that Prime Minister Cosgrave went on TV to blame Republicans for the Dublin bombings, in which some 30 people had been blown apart by British-inspired and British-armed loyalists. Indeed the Cosgrave government wound up the police investigation of the bombings within a few weeks, despite the fact that they represented the greatest mass murder in the history of the Irish state. Ferriter is a safe and conservative voice of the Irish ruling class--he has no interesting insights to offer. Definitely not on my Christmas list.