Bandit Country: The IRA and South Armagh

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While this book will indeed bring you up to speed on the unique nature of South Armagh, it’s a meandering digressive read, jumping all over the place, making for a somewhat ponderous experience. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.

Still, the level of violence, murder, and lawlessness carried out by the Provisional IRA in South Armagh was off the charts. This point helpfully dispels the myth that the old IRA were good guys, completely unlike the modern Provisional movement. And each commented on it favourably…Harnden is to be commended for striking the balance that he did. Toby Harnden has stripped away the myth and propaganda associated with South Armagh to produce one of the most compelling and important books of the Troubles.

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This is an incredibly important piece of work, and this most recent reread has proven to me that it's aged impeccably well, too. The SAS men of Ulster Troop are the best in the world at surveillance, unsurpassed in counter-insurgency techniques. 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. Loses points for its slight - and in the light of recent conclusive official confirmation of systematic British Army-RUC-UDR-Loyalist collusion, absolutely ridiculous - bias towards 'official' viewpoints on the sources of violence and evidence of security force misconduct and injustice towards the Nationalist community.

Many commentators and authors, (although in fairness, probably not Harnden) fail to really comprehend why the 'Queen's Writ' is not warmly received, in much of Ireland, for very real historical reasons. This book is a must read and if you are only to ever read one book on the situation in Northern Ireland, well this is it. Toby Harnden's book, Bandit Country, is an incredible glance at the unbeaten, undefeated South Armagh. In conclusion, Bandit Country has become a bookcase essential for anyone with an interest in the centuries-old Anglo-Irish conflict, or even those who have an interest in counter-insurgency matters in general. Drawing on secret documents and interviews on South Armagh's recent history, Harnden told the inside story of how the IRA came close to bringing the British state to its knees.

It is an impression of South Armagh that Bandit Country attempts to confirm throughout its chapters, but is it a fair reflection of reality? Collins had at one time been the chief Provisional IRA 'intelligence officer' in the nearby city of Newry but had agreed to turn Queen's Evidence, aka Supergrass, against his former comrades. These were dangerous times, not just for Republican activists or Catholics but for lawyers, journalists, and human rights campaigners.The structure is disjointed, and it jumps around in a distracting and confusing manner, always trying to squeeze in more stuff than it can manage. The sources Harnden has used have included past serving British Army soldiers, RUC personnel, ex-Spook turned decommissioning Czar John Grieve, and the late, ex-PIRA supergrass Eamonn Collins.