The impact of the Troubles on the Republic of Ireland, 1968–79

Boiling volcano?

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Brian Hanley
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Divisions between north and south Ireland were prevalent since the 1920s. Yet, until the 1970s, nobody in public life in the Republic of Ireland argued that partition was justified. This book examines in detail the impact of the Northern Irish Troubles on southern Irish society during the period 1968-79. It begins with the aftermath of the civil rights march in Derry in October 1968 and traces the reaction to the events until the autumn of 1972. The impact of August 1969, the aftermath of internment and the response to Bloody Sunday are examined. The book looks at violence south of the border, particularly bombings and shootings and their human cost, and examines state security, censorship and the popular protests associated with these issues. A general outlook at the changing attitudes to refugees and northern nationalists is provided before describing the impact of the conflict on southern Protestants. The controversies concerning the Irish Republican Army and their activities are highlighted. The book looks at the question of revisionism and how debates about history were played out in academia as well as at a popular level. A variety of social and cultural responses to the conflict are examined, including attitudes to Britain and northern Unionists. For many southerners, Ulster was practically a foreign country and Northern Ireland did not seem very Irish. By 1979, the prospect of an end to the conflict seemed dim.

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‘Historian Brian Hanley has done lovely work on reports and documents, then and later, on the flight of northerners across the border 1969-75. Hanley has also found warm, even loving support, people from the deepest south taking miserable, terrified northerners, mostly from Belfast, into their homes. He has used so many records from the time, radio and television as well as print, that the effect is documentary
Fionnuala O’Connor
The Irish News

‘Brian Hanley has written a valuable study of how the first 10 years of the Troubles affected the Republic of Ireland.’
Irish Times
 

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