History: The IRA is history: so Richard English's superb new book tells us. History, in that its long war is over but also in the sense that it is now a historical phenomenon, part of the comprehensible past rather than the opaque present and future, writes Peter Hart.
Of course, it is hardly the first book on the IRA and some readers may well ask whether we need another, especially on the heels of Ed Moloney's excellent Secret History. However, it is no insult to say that his book belongs to the genre of journalistic insider accounts, complete with exclusive revelations. Before Moloney there was Peter Taylor and, before that, Eamonn Mallie and Patrick Bishop, and so on.
Armed Struggle does concentrate on the Provisionals, but English is writing public, not secret, history, and he knows as much about the first 50 years of the 20th century as he does about the last. As a result, this is the first full history of the IRA and the best overall account of the organisation.
English writes to the highest scholarly standards and makes valuable use of political science literature, but this is not (speaking of familiar genres) an academic study of the Northern Ireland "problem" either. He has carried out extensive interviews with republicans and pays close attention to the press and political debates. Moreover, he writes with the common reader in mind: he has crafted a fine balance of detail and analysis and his prose is clear, fresh, and jargon-free.
The book offers both narrative and explanation, with each chapter charting and interpreting a particular period, introducing and assessing key personalities, and dissecting the main events. The discussion of the first republican campaigns features some very nice writing on the Rising itself ("a kind of national Irish poem") and stands as the best brief account of the 1916-23 revolution now available. He is equally good at clarifying the murky doings of 1939-45, with its Nazi spies, informer witch-hunts and pointless deaths all round.
The analysis acquires a more controversial edge once it hits the 1960s. With great care, English suggests a major role for the IRA in the outbreak of the crisis, as it both maintained its armed threat, helped launch the civil rights movement (although it was never a republican front), and used the resulting explosion to mobilise for a second revolution. He stresses the continuity between "old" and "new" IRAs, detailing the extensive CVs of the Provisional leadership.
The heart of the book is its discussion of "the prison war" of 1976-81. This is another tricky and much written-about subject that English is able to elucidate without eliminating either complexity or emotion. Here political identity, strategy and commitment came together to help produce both the "long war" and the taking up of the ballot box, albeit perhaps not in the way usually understood.
In fact, the move to greater political engagement grew out of earlier debates by a maturing new wave of leaders. If anything, they were opposed to the strikes for fear of moving backwards. And, just as they feared, the prisoners did draw the conclusion that elections and protests were useless. The revival of Sinn Féin was intended to facilitate the long-term armed struggle, not prepare the way for compromise or peace. Thus, the subsequent Libyan arms shipments went hand-in-hand with the dropping of abstentionism by giving McGuinness and co the military credibility to make their political moves.
Peace, when it came, was a contingent product of the 1990s. The fall of European communism, the apparent success of peace processes elsewhere, the intervention of the Clinton administration - all played a part. It was the IRA's changing analysis that mattered most though. The war of attrition seemed to be having the opposite effect to that intended - violence was becoming more, not less, bearable to the British government. It threatened to descend into a sectarian war against loyalist paramilitaries so that any bargaining position they had built up might slip away. Finally, a nationalist front might actually offer big rewards. English eschews the Adams-ocentric viewpoint of other recent writers and suggests this was more a collective rethinking than the work of the Great Helmsman alone.
Much of this is debatable and open to criticism, like everything else. The regions - notably south Armagh - are largely omitted, as are the Officials, INLA, and their current mini-me successors. More could have been said about the nitty-gritty of operations, interrogations and smuggling (no blood for oil?). Less could have been heard from Danny Morrison, a rare self- promoter in the ranks. However, much of this is the result of defensible writing decisions as the book has been designed to undermine stereotypes and - dare I say it - promote understanding.
More than this, though, it sets a new standard for debate on republicanism - and with republicans - based on detailed and public research, combining both respect and firm judgment.
English concludes with a critique of the main IRA arguments for war, but it is empathy and a determination to present their thinking fairly that animates his work. These were rational, ordinary people, motivated as much by their experience of violence and discrimination as by ideology. They were victims as well as perpetrators, who thought deeply about their position and their future. Both their violence and their new commitment to the peace process reflect these facts.
One of the most fascinating parts of the book deals with the Long Kesh library and the intense self-education of the prisoners. No one can read this book without being impressed by its subjects, however futile their sacrifices and killings.
Peter Hart is chair of Irish Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and is the author of The IRA and Its Enemies and British Intelligence in Ireland. He is currently writing a biography of Michael Collins
Armed Struggle: A History of the IRA. By Richard English, Macmillan, 486pp, £20