God and the Gun: The Church and Irish Terrorism

Manufacturer: Routledge Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks List Price:$135.00 Our Price:$119.00 Authors: Martin Dillon Description:

Reviews:

OK
Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien has described the author, Martin Dillon, as 'the greatest living authority on Irish terrorism'. If he ever was, he has since lost his touch. His previous works have been well-received, particularly The Shankill Butchers, Stone Cold and Killer in Clowntown. Since leaving Ulster, however, he seems to have lost his way. His last book on the Provisional IRA, The Enemy Within, was inferior sensationalist stuff.In God and the Gun, Dillon claims to look at the role of the Church and 'Irish terrorism'. In this task he fails utterly. This is not to say that the book is uninteresting. Despite its many faults, and elementary errors of fact, it is - in parts - a gripping read.The conflict in Ulster has been primarily one of nationality but it is impossible to ignore its 'religious' dimension. Ulsterfolk have not been fighting a theological battle but everyone's religious upbringing and background colours their outlook on the situation. Many of the main paramilitary players in both republican and loyalist groups are regular worshippers - 'good Christians' despite having committed some horrendous atrocities over the past thirty years. Dillon has met and interviewed notable Protestant and Catholic paramilitary activists and former activists to try and understand how the manage to reconcile killing with their Christian convictions. Most fascinating was the testimony of Billy Wright who went on to form the Loyalist Volunteer Force splinter group. Billy Wright was later to die in Long Kesh prison at the hands of INLA fellow-prisoners.Wright has been involved with the Young Citizen Volunteers as a teenager. He was imprisoned on arms and hijacking charges in 1977 and soon after his release was again held in custody on the testimony of the 'supergrass' Clifford McKeown. During his time in prison, he began to read the Bible and made a 'commitment to Christ' after his release in 1983. This caused him to abandon his terrorist affiliations. However, the 'act of treachery' that brought in the Hillsborough Pact of November 1985 called him back to arms. Wright took the militarist view that constitutional politics was a waste of time - 'if I was to be involved in politics, in a sense it would be from a paramilitary prospectus. There's absolutely no way one could walk with Christ and align oneself to paramilitary activity.' Despite his abandonment of his 'walk with Christ', he was deeply imbued with a fundamentalist Protestant Christian outlook but willing to lose his personal faith and his eternal soul in order to fight for his beliefs in Faith, Fatherland and Family. Wright was a complex character and Dillon is at his best when he lets Wright speak for himself and spares the reader his own speculations and opinions.It is interesting to note that Protestant terrorists seem to feel more guilt than their Catholic counterparts. UFF and UVF men often became evangelical Christians when give time to reflect in prison. On the other hand, their Catholic counterparts became more ideologically committed republicans with no apparent sense of guilt for their acts of violence. There must be some deep theological or cultural significance here, but Dillon leaves this avenue largely unexplored. Someone else will have to do that job sometime as this book falls short of the task.


Infinite Loop
The sig. Martin Dillon door the history "of the Irish difficulties" close like latta he without the reader really that it participates with he to its interviews. The interviews that ripartisce, with to the balanced personal perspective offer, present the reader with one of the freer explanations of the conflict, the participants and their reasons, that I have read. This book is of the trattabile length, for documentation more detailed than several political groups and of their heads; Sig.. The sig. Timothy Patrick Coogan of the friend of the Dillon is the definitive reference. The more unusual function of the book was interviews that have lead with the priests catholic and the role is forced occasionally, to the gunpoint, under the threat of the dead women, in order to carry out. There will be blows to the hatch; then they will be taken to a victim that brutalized usually and then will be given some minuteren in order to feel the final words of the man before its who is executed. It adds to this that there are periods that the victims are members of the church of the priest and have are one personal torture that ecclesiastical for these priests. The ministers of the faith protestant, that they try to carry the sanity to these conflicts, are riassegna from the Ireland in order to arrest their interference to you and in order protect their emergency. On the other conclusion of the phantom there is clergy is from the sides of which the behavior he eliminates them from their roles like representatives of the church that arranges them in the same column of the terrorists support/protect. When it turns out you of the violence are indicates to you in the news, the tendency must often disumanizzare the individuals that perpetrated such violence. The sig. Dillon extension that that from whichever side of the conflict is those that to align depraved, is murders and loving of the violence here that would be lead as they make in spite of their position. Moreover interview the men and the woman who are extremely articulates to you, that it knows exactly that what makes and why. not the just rhetorical of the partisan of the spout. Better understanding of the motivation was with these the interview has earned one than some of people in cause. The problems that face the Ireland are much more complex of the news commentators would make to believe you. The conflict is not right approximately the religion, in spite of the slogan of "for the God and Ulster". And us they are not 2 groups that oppose one an other, but factions to the inside of the factions, often in discord with those who would seem to be from the same side. There are uniform groups entire mounts you of the women, that one who I had not never read before. A book cannot explain the incredibly complex editions that catalyze and consolidate the violence in Ireland. The sig. Dillon makes is remarkablly good job in a relatively short book that gives to the reader one good grounding in editions, in the combatants and in theirs you protest. They have come via from this understanding of the book that if nothing otherwise, the conflict is infinitely more complex of ritratto usually and that there are many groups ritratti like combat from the same side, when in effects they have tant' affection for one an other as they make for their presumed common enemy. The military forces are not free for behavior that appalling to all the true military unit that work and the complicity of that sanction their behavior is repulsive pure. The book will not answer to every question that you can have; the very many information will supply you that can condurle to ulterior study on the subject. A investigative book much written good, from the man whom its life to the risk has put literally in order to carry this job and others that make the readers.


Chilling, balanced and gritty.
As a television correspondent traveling to Northern Ireland just before marching season, I covered several references. I used "God and the Gun" as the primary source for my trip. Only someone as thorough a journalist as Martin Dillon could direct readers into one of the world's most lasting, if not bizarre, geopolitical campaigns of terror draped in religion. It's in straightforward, sometimes blunt language that stirs up your stomach. Because of the real fear and disturbing acts of premeditated violence on the Emerald Isle, "God and the Gun" is similar to a nightly national newscast in the U.S., except there are no pictures for the horrifying words from the interviews and accounts contained within. Much like Thomas L. Friedman's "From Beirut to Jerusalem," Martin Dillon connects historical occurrences to recent outbreaks of destruction, thuggery and wanton killings. For the casual observer, reporter or person of faith who wants a significant study of flashpoints for trouble, "God and the Gun" is a work to read. It has stories from an author who has lived amidst the day-to-day tensions for 18 years. His words will leave you wanting to tell someome else what you discovered about The Troubles. "God and the Gun" takes you where no movie has on the subject of Northern Ireland -- into the minds, hearts and deeds of clergy and lay people. This is what the Irish have known for centuries: religion and politics are a volatile combination.


superb! Must buy immediately
The better book has published recently on the Irish conflict. It supplies not only a deep understanding of the Irish political situation interlaced the religion and the terrorism but he is moreover highly leggibile.



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