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Who Was Responsible for the Troubles?
Britain's role in Northern Ireland conflict largely absent from tendentious account

THIS book by Liam Kennedy does not claim to be an objective assessment of the Northern Ireland Troubles and the author does not attempt to conceal his political views.

His comment that Dan Breen, an Irish War of Independence guerilla, was a “leading gunman from my own county” gives a clue to his perspective, not just on the Provisional IRA but the early 20th-century struggle against the British.

Kennedy emphasises statistics of violent deaths and injuries to justify the conclusion that the Provos were mainly responsible for the Troubles. Those statistics, and the Provos’ prosecution of a long war, underpin the book’s main thesis.

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