ISBN 0-900960-11-7
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Northern Divisions The Old IRA and the Belfast Pogroms 1920-22 by Jim McDermott Jimmy McDermott was an IRA officer in Belfast in the 1920s and so was his brother Johnny. They went their separate ways when the IRA split over the Treaty, Jimmy ending up as an officer in the Free State Army. The story of the McDermott brothers is one small part of the history of the turbulent birth of the unionist state in the North. In this book, Jimmy McDermott's grandson pieces together the history of Belfast republicanism around the time of partition. Who were the Belfast republicans of the early 1920s? How were they organised and how did they relate to the larger republican movement in Ireland? Why did so many republican personnel in the city opt for a pro-Treaty stance? Above all, what did the Belfast IRA do and why were the survivors of the period so silent about their involvement afterwards? Historian and teacher Jim McDermott sets out to answer these questions, covering the shipyard expulsions, IRA raids and RIC reprisals, District Inspector Nixon's murder gang, the IRA's policing role in its own districts, and the loyalist pogroms which claimed the life of the author's great grandfather. He presents a powerful chronicle of Belfast republicanism and the role of the 3rd Northern Division of the IRA, and he helps to explain strands of the conflict which are still with us today-policing, sectarianism and mistrust of political institutions. 234 x 156mm 330 pages ISBN 0-900960-11-7 Price £12.99
