The Provisional IRA in England: The Bombing Campaign 1973-1997

Description

In this revealing and fascinating account, the impact of the Provisional IRA’s bombing campaign in Britain on both British government policy towards Northern Ireland and the internal politics of the republican movement, are examined in detail. The book highlights the early thinking of the British government and draws on recently released public records from 1939, 1973 and 1974. It makes extensive use of television documentary footage to offer a broader analysis. The book also examines republican rationale behind the campaign, the reasoning behind the use of particular tactics and the thinking behind atrocities such as the Birmingham bombings. 

Using a range of new evidence, the book highlights the bankruptcy of republican strategic thinking and challenges the notion that successive British governments appeased republicans because of the threat of bombs in London.  The analysis of the campaign is placed within the wider context of the then ongoing violence in Northern Ireland as well as the history of republican violence in England dating back to the nineteenth century.   

Table of Contents

1. Historical Perspectives
2. The Re-emergence of Republican Violence in Great Britain
3. Bombs across Britain
4. Targeting England
5. ‘A Continuing Presence’
6. ‘Tactical Use of the Armed Struggle’
7. Conclusion

About the Author

Gary McGladdery has been studying the impact of the Northern Ireland Troubles and the development of the Peace Process for over ten years. This book demonstrates his understanding of the impact of domestic terrorism, and particularly that of Northern Irish terrorism in English cities. He has previously published a comparative analysis of Northern Ireland Protestants and White South Africans in the New Political Dispensation in the journal Irish Studies in International Affairs.