Question: Is it really, truly possible to beat swords into plowshares? See Isaiah 2:3-4.
If you’re of a certain age (mine), you likely grew up watching what we used to call the evening news. And if you’re of a certain age (mine), you’ll also likely recall that almost every night during the 1980’s & 90’s there was footage from Northern Ireland.
It just seemed like an endless, unsolvable and faraway TV conflict fueled by ethnic, religious, political and generational hate. Akin to the Middle East. For over a decade the bombings, kidnappings, marches & violence were a part of the nightly news. Like a Palmolive Dish Soap commercial and Walter Cronkite, The Troubles were a staple of the news.
But then, suddenly, they weren’t. On Good Friday, 1998, an Agreement was signed and all parties just simply stopped the bloodshed. And somehow, the cease fire held. And has continued to hold.
I’ve always been curious about how the peace deal was brokered.
And wondered: Maybe it IS possible to beat swords into plowshares.
This book is about The Troubles. The murders, hunger strikes, bombings, conspiracies, liars, double agents, politicians, etc are all here. And about how a housewife with ten kids figured into the whole thing.
But it’s also about how the militant arm of the IRA was basically usurped by the political arm of the IRA (known as Sinn Fein), and achieved the necessary political clout to broker a peace deal.
Maybe it is possible to beat swords into plowshares.
Here are the jacket notes.
In December 1972, Jean McConville, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville’s children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress–with so many kids, she had always kept it handy for diapers or ripped clothes.
Patrick Radden Keefe’s mesmerizing book on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with. The brutal violence seared not only people like the McConville children, but also I.R.A. members embittered by a peace that fell far short of the goal of a united Ireland, and left them wondering whether the killings they committed were not justified acts of war, but simple murders.
This book made the recent NY Times list of The Best 100 Books Of The 21st Century (so far).
Check out ratings and reviews on Goodreads.
I read it in 3 days. Couldn’t put it down. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Let me know what you think. Leave a comment.
Enjoy
And There’s More!!
A central figure to this book is a woman named Dolours Price. I, Dolours is a documentary about her life in the IRA. It’s streaming on various platforms, including Peacock.
Click the link to see the trailer.