One Man's Terrorist

by Daniel Finn

  18. Eamonn McCann, War and an Irish Town, London 1980, p. 176.

  19. McCann, War and an Irish Town, pp. 175–6.

  20. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 10 May 1980.

  21. Ed Moloney, ‘The IRA’, Magill, 30 September 1980.

  22. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 3 November 1979.

  23. Patterson, The Politics of Illusion, p. 222; Murray and Tonge, Sinn Féin and the SDLP, p. 152.

  24. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 3 November 1979.

  25. Ibid., 10 November, 3 November 1979.

  26. Moloney, ‘The IRA’.

  27. Republican News, 31 January 1976.

  28. Unfree Citizen, March 1976.

  29. Republican News, 8 April, 1 April 1978.

  30. Vincent Browne, ‘There will be no more ceasefires – the Provisional IRA’, Magill, 1 August 1978.

  31. ‘Appendix 4: Staff Report, 1977’, in Clarke, Broadening the Battlefield, pp. 251–2.

  32. Bishop and Mallie, The Provisional IRA, pp. 320–3; Moloney, A Secret History of the IRA, pp. 157–61.

  33. Moloney, ‘The IRA’.

  34. Ed Moloney, ‘“We have worn down their will”’, Magill, 30 September 1980.

  35. Adams, Before the Dawn, p. 266.

  36. Republican News, 25 February 1978.

  37. NAUK FCO/87/976.

  38. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 19 April 1980.

  39. Unfree Citizen, July–August 1977.

  40. Socialist Republic, February 1978.

  41. Starry Plough, February 1978.

  42. Socialist Republic, March–April 1978.

  43. Adams, The Politics of Irish Freedom, pp. 75–6.

  44. Republican News, 4 February 1978.

  45. F. Stuart Ross, Smashing H-Block: The Rise and Fall of the Popular Campaign Against Criminalization, 1976–82, Liverpool 2011, pp. 51–2.

  46. Republican News, 2 September 1978.

  47. Ross, Smashing H-Block, p. 53.

  48. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 19 May 1979.

  49. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 2 June 1979.

  50. People’s Democracy, Prisoners of Partition: H-Block/Armagh, Dublin 1980, p. 9.

  51. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 16 June 1979.

  52. Ibid., 30 June 1979.

  53. Ross, Smashing H-Block, p. 61.

  54. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 27 October 1979.

  55. Ross, Smashing H-Block, p. 61.

  56. A group of female IRA prisoners in Armagh prison soon joined them under the leadership of Mairéad Farrell. The protest in Armagh had a major impact on the Irish feminist movement, which divided along pro- and anti-republican lines: Christina Loughran, ‘Armagh and Feminist Strategy: Campaigns Around Republican Women Prisoners in Armagh Jail’, Feminist Review, no. 23, June 1986. The broad front in support of republican prisoners became the National H-Block/Armagh Committee in response.

  57. Gerry Foley, ‘Bernadette and the Politics of H-Block’, Magill, April 1981.

  58. Taylor, Provos, pp. 235–6.

  59. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 28 March 1981.

  60. PRONI NIO/112/196A.

  61. PRONI CENT/1/10/25.

  62. Irish Times, 8 May 1981.

  63. PRONI CENT/1/10/25.

  64. Starry Plough, April 1981.

  65. Ross, Smashing H-Block, pp. 164, 177.

  66. PRONI CENT/1/10/36A.

  67. People’s Democracy, From Reform to Collaboration: The History of Gerry Fitt, Belfast 1981.

  68. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 30 May 1981.

  69. Ibid., 16 May 1981.

  70. Ibid., 15 August 1981.

  71. PRONI NIO/12/197A.

  72. PRONI NIO/12/254.

  73. PRONI NIO/12/202.

  74. Ibid.

  75. Ibid.

  76. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 8 August 1981.

  77. Ibid., 29 August 1981.

  78. Ross, Smashing H-Block, p. 144.

  79. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 29 August 1981. Carron’s by-election victory later became the focus of bitter controversy when Richard O’Rawe, who had been press officer for the prisoners during the hunger strike, claimed that the outside leadership turned down an acceptable deal when six of the ten hunger strikers were still alive. According to O’Rawe, they wanted to avoid a settlement before the Fermanagh–South Tyrone vote took place: O’Rawe, Blanketmen: An Untold Story of the H-Block Hunger Strike, Dublin 2005.

  80. Irish Times, 29 August 1981.

  81. PRONI CENT/1/10/32.

  82. PRONI NIO/12/202.

  83. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 10 October 1981. An INLA statement made a similar boast: ‘We now have a new generation of young people who were brought into the struggle during the hunger strike, and have brought new life into the INLA.’ Starry Plough, August 1982.

  84. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 5 September 1981.

  85. PRONI CENT/1/10/86A.

  86. Socialist Republic, October 1982.

  8. War by Other Means

  1. PRONI CENT/1/11/51A.

  2. PRONI CENT/1/11/59.

  3. Michael Farrell, ‘The Provos at the ballot box’, Magill, 1 June 1983. Farrell had to move south in the early 1980s to escape the threat of assassination: UDA sources reported that his name was next on their list of targets after Bernadette McAliskey. He went on to become a distinguished lawyer and human rights campaigner.

  4. PRONI CENT/1/12/8, CENT/1/12/19.

  5. Farrell, ‘The Provos at the ballot box’.

  6. Michael Farrell, ‘We have now established a sort of Republican veto’, Magill, 30 June 1983.

  7. Michael Farrell, ‘The Armalite and the ballot box’, Magill, 30 June 1983.

  8. Brendan O’Brien, The Long War: The IRA and Sinn Féin, Dublin 1999, p. 113.

  9. Farrell, ‘We have now established a sort of Republican veto’.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Martin Collins, ed., Ireland After Britain, London 1985, p. 17.

  12. Ken Livingstone, ‘Why Labour Lost’, New Left Review, July–August 1983.

  13. PRONI CENT/1/12/2A.

  14. Rowthorn and Wayne, Northern Ireland, pp. 115–19. The rate for Protestant men was only slightly worse than the UK average.

  15. O’Brien, The Long War, pp. 127–8.

  16. Irish Times, 8 August 1983.

  17. Ibid., 23 May 1984.

  18. Ibid., 15 November 1983.

  19. Ibid., 20 April 1984.

  20. Ibid., 13 June 1984.

  21. Ibid., 19 June 1984.

  22. Ibid., 22 June 1984.

  23. Gene Kerrigan, ‘The IRA has to do what the IRA has to do’, Magill, September 1984.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Taylor, Brits, pp. 219–20; O’Brien, The Long War, pp. 107–11.

  26. Bishop and Mallie, The Provisional IRA, pp. 413–14; Moloney, A Secret History of the IRA, pp. 244–5; O’Brien, The Long War, pp. 129–30.

  27. Irish Times, 29 December 1984.

  28. Taylor, Brits, p. 265.

  29. Irish Times, 23 November, 20 November 1984.

  30. Ibid., 1 May 1985.

  31. Ibid., 4 November 1985.

  32. O’Leary and McGarry, The Politics of Antagonism, pp. 221–9.

  33. PRONI ENV/37/1.

  34. Irish Times, 15 January 1986.

  35. PRONI CENT/1/17/38A.

  36. Danny Morrison, The Hillsborough Agreement, Belfast and Dublin 1986, pp. 8–9, 15.

  37. O’Brien, The Long War, pp. 130–1; Clarke, Broadening the Battlefield, pp. 234–5; Moloney, A Secret History of the IRA, pp. 287–8.

  38. Skirting the edge of self-parody, Adams later claimed that reports of the Convention’s move came ‘suddenly and unexpectedly’ to him: Gerry Adams, Hope and History: Making Peace in Ireland, Dingle 2003, p. 46.

  39. Irish Times, 15 October 1986.

  40. Sinn Féin, The Politics of Revolution: The Main Speeches and Debates from the 1986 Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis, Dublin 1986, pp. 26–7.

  41. The Unionist leader Da
vid Trimble used the term ‘sleekedness’ to convey his intense dislike and distrust of Adams: Godson, Himself Alone, pp. 398–9. Ironically, Trimble’s preference for McGuinness, the other half of Sinn Féin’s peace-process double act, aligned him with many IRA Volunteers.

  42. Kevin Toolis, Rebel Hearts: Journeys within the IRA’s Soul, London 1996, pp. 294–8.

  43. Sinn Féin, The Politics of Revolution, pp. 6, 7, 10, 8, 12.

  44. Ibid., pp. 14, 4, 6.

  45. Ibid., p. 20.

  46. O’Brien, The Long War, pp. 336–7; Moloney, A Secret History of the IRA, p. 289.

  47. Sinn Féin, The Politics of Revolution, pp. 13–14.

  48. United Irishman, July 1976; Workers’ Party, Security in Northern Ireland, Belfast 1989, p. 6.

  49. Workers’ Party, The Workers’ Party and the Anglo-Irish Agreement, Dublin 1986, pp. 3–4; Workers’ Party, The Socialist Perspective on Northern Ireland and the Anglo-Irish Agreement, Dublin 1986, p. 10.

  50. Workers’ Party, The Current Political Situation in Northern Ireland, p. 5.

  51. O’Leary and McGarry, The Politics of Antagonism, p. 205.

  52. Jonathan Tonge, The New Northern Irish Politics? Basingstoke 2005, p. 89.

  53. PRONI CENT/1/12/24.

  54. Hanley and Millar, The Lost Revolution, pp. 524–6, 536–7.

  55. Sinn Féin, The Politics of Revolution, p. 8.

  56. Irish Times, 23 May 1984.

  57. Sinn Féin, The Good Old IRA: Tan War Operations, Dublin 1985, p. 3.

  58. Townshend, The Republic, p. 370.

  59. Sinn Féin, The Good Old IRA, p. 3.

  60. Ibid., p. 2.

  61. O’Brien, The Long War, p. 129.

  62. Figures from the CAIN database.

  63. Moloney, A Secret History of the IRA, p. 21.

  64. Eamonn Mallie and David McKittrick, The Fight for Peace: The Inside Story of the Irish Peace Process, London 1997, p. 48.

  65. Moloney, A Secret History of the IRA, p. 22.

  66. Ibid., pp. 22–32.

  67. Ibid., p. 22.

  68. Mallie and McKittrick, The Fight for Peace, p. 48.

  69. O’Brien, The Long War, p. 141.

  70. Kelley, The Longest War, pp. 376–7.

  71. Starry Plough, November–December 1983.

  72. Vincent Browne, ‘Inside the INLA’, Magill, August 1985.

  73. Irish Republican Socialist Party, An Historical Analysis of the IRSP: Its Past Role, Root Cause of Its Problems and Proposals for the Future, Dublin 1987, p. 3.

  9. Down a Few Rungs

  1. Irish Times, 13 June 1988.

  2. Ibid., 4 April 1988.

  3. Adams, The Politics of Irish Freedom, p. 154.

  4. Irish Times, 14 November 1983.

  5. Adams, The Politics of Irish Freedom, p. 128.

  6. Adams included Coughlan’s critique of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in his bibliography for The Politics of Irish Freedom.

  7. Irish Times, 23 June 1986.

  8. Ibid., 6 November 1986; Murray and Tonge, Sinn Féin and the SDLP, p. 88.

  9. Gerry Adams, ‘A Bus Ride to Independence and Socialism’ (1986), in Adams, Signposts to Independence and Socialism, Dublin 1988, p. 17.

  10. Ross, Smashing H-Block, p. 180. For the same reason, traditionalists like Jimmy Drumm looked on the new members with suspicion, fearing they would begin to raise questions about the armed struggle itself: Henry Patterson, The Politics of Illusion: Republicanism and Socialism in Modern Ireland, London 1989, p. 198.

  11. ‘Sinn Féin Document No. 1’, 17 March 1988, in The Sinn Féin–SDLP Talks, January–September 1988, sinnfein.ie/files, accessed 22 July 2018.

  12. ‘SDLP Document No. 1’, 17 March 1988, in ibid.

  13. ‘Sinn Féin Document No. 2’, 19 May 1988, in ibid.

  14. Irish Times, 6 September 1988.

  15. Gerry Adams, A Pathway to Peace, Cork 1988, p. 60.

  16. Irish Times, 26 September 1988.

  17. Ibid., 28 November 1988.

  18. Ibid., 9 January 1989.

  19. Ibid., 18 January, 30 January 1989.

  20. Fortnight, May 1989.

  21. Irish Times, 30 January 1989.

  22. Ibid., 19 June 1989.

  23. Fortnight, December 1987.

  24. Irish Times, 30 September, 6 October 1989.

  25. Jim Gibney, ‘A Liberating Philosophy’, An Réabhlóid, December 1989–February 1990.

  26. Irish Times, 22 January 1990.

  27. Ibid., 3 February 1990.

  28. Moloney, A Secret History of the IRA, pp. 334–5.

  29. Irish Times, 5 February 1990.

  30. Ibid., 9 November 1984.

  31. Kader Asmal and Adrian Hadland, Politics in My Blood: A Memoir, Johannesburg 2011, pp. 65–6.

  32. Niall Ó Dochartaigh, ‘The Longest Negotiation: British Policy, IRA Strategy and the Making of the Northern Ireland Peace Settlement’, Political Studies, vol. 63, no. 1, 2015.

  33. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 16 November 1989.

  34. PRONI NIO/10/9/13A.

  35. Irish Times, 8 November 1989.

  36. Ó Dochartaigh, ‘The Longest Negotiation’, p. 210.

  37. Irish Times, 17 November 1990.

  38. Adrian Guelke, ‘The Political Impasse in South Africa and Northern Ireland: A Comparative Perspective’, Comparative Politics, vol. 23, no. 2, January 1991, pp. 158–9.

  39. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 25 June 1992.

  40. Ibid.

  41. Moloney, Voices from the Grave, pp. 425–7.

  42. Sinn Féin, ‘Towards a Lasting Peace in Ireland’, in O’Brien, The Long War, p. 412.

  43. Starry Plough, vol. 1, no. 2, 1991.

  44. Sinn Féin, ‘Towards a Lasting Peace’, p. 411.

  45. Adams, ‘A Bus Ride to Independence and Socialism’, pp. 13, 15.

  46. Sinn Féin, ‘Towards a Lasting Peace’, p. 409.

  47. Murray and Tonge, Sinn Féin and the SDLP, pp. 122, 146.

  48. Adams, Hope and History, p. 81; Martin Mansergh, ‘The Background to the Peace Process’, Irish Studies in International Affairs, vol. 6, 1995, p. 153.

  49. ‘Draft 2: A Strategy for Peace and Justice in Ireland’, in Mallie and McKittrick, The Fight for Peace, pp. 411–13.

  50. ‘Draft 3: Document sent to John Hume and the Irish government by the republican movement, February 1992’, in ibid., p. 414 (emphasis added).

  51. ‘Draft 5: June 1992 Sinn Féin draft’, in ibid., p. 416 (emphasis added).

  52. Ibid.

  53. O’Brien, The Long War, pp. 290–1.

  54. Adams, Hope and History, p. 112.

  55. Fortnight, September 1988.

  56. Figures from the CAIN database.

  57. Irish Times, 27 January 1992.

  58. Toolis, Rebel Hearts, pp. 198–9.

  59. Irish Times, 24 December 1992.

  60. Ibid., 4 March 1993.

  61. After his release from prison in 1995, Morrison remained a vocal supporter of Gerry Adams but did not resume his position in the Sinn Féin leadership team, concentrating on a new career as a writer.

  62. Danny Morrison, Then The Walls Came Down: A Prison Journal, Cork 1999, pp. 96–7.

  63. Ibid., pp. 234–5.

  64. Ibid., p. 263.

  65. Ibid., p. 241.

  66. Ibid., pp. 289–90.

  67. Ibid., p. 289.

  68. Ibid., p. 291–2.

  69. Ibid., p. 293.

  70. Martyn Frampton, The Long March: The Political Strategy of Sinn Féin, 1981–2007, Basingstoke 2008, pp. 86–7.

  71. Figures from the CAIN database.

  72. Irish Times, 9 September 1993.

  73. Taylor, Loyalists, p. 234.

  74. Ibid., pp. 217–19, 231–2; David Lister and Hugh Jordan, Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and ‘C Company’, Edinburgh 2004, pp. 188–9, 193.

  75. Irish Times, 23 March 1990, 9 September 1993, 2 October 1993, 8 November 1993; Adams, Hope and History, pp.
84–91.

  76. Cobain, The History Thieves, pp. 198–200.

  77. Irish Times, 30 January 1992, 4 February 1992.

  78. Cobain, The History Thieves, pp. 188–90.

  79. Mark McGovern, ‘Inquiring into Collusion? Collusion, the State and the Management of Truth Recovery in Northern Ireland’, State Crime Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, Spring 2013; ‘“See No Evil”: Collusion in Northern Ireland’, Race and Class, vol. 58, no. 3, January 2017.

  80. Eamonn McCann, War and Peace in Northern Ireland, Dublin 1998, p. 131.

  81. Irish Times, 2 April 2004.

  82. Ibid., 26 April, 3 May, 10 May 1993.

  83. Ibid., 30 June 1993.

  84. Ibid., 2 October 1993.

  85. Sunday Tribune, 7 November 1999.

  86. Irish Times, 28 October 1993.

  87. Ibid., 25 October 1993.

  88. Mallie and McKittrick, The Fight for Peace, pp. 173–5.

  89. Sinn Féin, Setting the Record Straight, Dublin 1993, p. 26.

  90. Irish Times, 26 April, 3 May, 22 September, 8 October 1993.

  91. Ibid., 9 September 1993.

  92. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 14 October 1993.

  93. Mallie and McKittrick, The Fight for Peace, pp. 213–31.

  94. O’Brien, The Long War, pp. 295–6.

  95. ‘Draft 5: June 1992 Sinn Féin Draft’, p. 414.

  96. ‘Joint Declaration 1993’, in O’Brien, The Long War, p. 421.

  97. Eamonn Mallie and David McKittrick, Endgame in Ireland, London 2001, p. 162.

  98. Godson, Himself Alone, p. 115.

  99. Gerry Adams, Free Ireland: Towards a Lasting Peace, Dingle 1995, pp. 216–17.

  100. In contrast, the events of 1989–91 hit the Workers’ Party hard, with the bulk of its parliamentary group in Dublin breaking off to form a new organization, Democratic Left.

  101. Gibney, ‘A Liberating Philosophy’.

  102. Morrison, Then the Walls Came Down, pp. 30–1.

  103. Feargal Cochrane, ‘Irish-America, the End of the IRA’s Armed Struggle and the Utility of “Soft Power”’, Journal of Peace Research, vol. 44, no. 2, 2007.

  104. Fortnight, October 1996.

  105. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 7 July 1994.

  106. Irish Times, 25 July, 28 July 1994.

  107. Mallie and McKittrick, The Fight for Peace, pp. 293–4.

  10. Endgame

  1. ‘TUAS Document: Summer 1994’, in Moloney, A Secret History of the IRA, pp. 598–601.

  2. Adams, Free Ireland, p. 229.

  3. Ibid., pp. 230–1.

  4. Eamon Collins, Killing Rage, London 1997, pp. 225–6, 231–2.