ISBN 0-900960-14-1
 
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novels of 'the troubles'



Sunday Times 
cartoon
 

          

            

          

        

        
GANGSTERS OR GUERRILLAS
Representations of Irish Republicans 
in 'Troubles Fiction'

by Patrick Magee

'When I mention having studied "Troubles fiction" while in prison, 
that is, prose fiction dealing with the conflict in the North of Ireland 
since the late 1960s, I often meet with polite silence...'

This is how Patrick Magee begins his fascinating study of the 
strange world of novels about the conflict in Ireland. No one is better 
placed to introduce the reader to the 'Provo godfathers', 'psychopaths', 
and 'romantic nationalists with a death wish' who inhabit this fictional 
universe. And no one is better placed to critically assess these 
representations of republicans than an active republican like Patrick Magee.

The popularity of 'Troubles fiction' lies in the genre's success in performing 
a key ideological and political function for the British reading public, 
argues the author. The fiction often serves to denigrate the enemy, 
idealise 'our side' and over-simplify the reasons for political conflict. 
In this way it has played a crucial role in the propaganda war over the 
last three decades. As a consequence, there has been little insight 
provided into the real world of Irish republicans. 

Patrick Magee was born in Belfast in 1951. In 1985, along with others, 
he was charged with involvement in an IRA bombing campaign in England 
which included the explosion at the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the Tory 
Party conference of 1984. He was sentenced to eight life terms, but was 
released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement in June 1999. 
This book is based on his doctoral thesis, begun while in prison and 
completed on his release.  

Patrick Magee has now established the Causeway Project which 
seeks to facilitate encounters between perpetrators and victims of any 
action that occurred during the course of the Troubles.

Foreword by Danny Morrison

234 x 156mm
256pp.  

ISBN 1-900960-14-1       Price  £12.99