Ian S. Wood

How 'The Troubles' in Ulster defined the Scottish and British military experience post-WW2 'Bloody Sunday' is one of the iconic moments in British History, but what were the experiences of the soldiers in Ulster, many of them Scottish, and how did the wider events of the Troubles figure in their minds? Wood and Sanders give voice to these soldiers, with many new documents, interviews and diary entries now released to the public domain. On top of the seismic findings of the Saville report, this analysis is a timely revisit to events which still echo in the political consciousness of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England. It is a period of history which prompts many questions about a liberal state. If it feels under armed threat within what it claims are its own borders, how should it respond and what are the rules of engagement? How accountable should they be to politicians, the public and the media? At what point do such operations become definable as war and how do they affect those who are called upon to carry them out? This book attempts to answer those questions.

This title shows how 'The Troubles' in Ulster defined the Scottish and British military experience post-WW2. 'Bloody Sunday' is one of the iconic moments in British History, but what were the experiences of the soldiers in Ulster, many of them Scottish, and how did the wider events of the Troubles figure in their minds? Wood and Sanders give voice to these soldiers, with many new documents, interviews and diary entries now released to the public domain. On top of the seismic findings of the Saville report, this analysis is a timely revisit to events which still echo in the political consciousness of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England. It is a period of history which prompts many questions about a liberal state. If it feels under armed threat within what it claims are its own borders, how should it respond and what are the rules of engagement? How accountable should they be to politicians, the public and the media? At what point do such operations become definable as war and how do they affect those who are called upon to carry them out? This book attempts to answer those questions.

For Britain the Second World War exists in popular memory as a time of heroic sacrifice, survival and ultimate victory over Fascism. In the Irish state the years 1939-1945 are still remembered simply as 'the Emergency'. Eire was one of many small states which in 1939 chose not to stay out of the war but one of the few able to maintain its non-belligerency as a policy. How much this owed to Britain's military resolve or to the political skills of Eamon de Valera is a key question which this new book will explore. It will also examine the tensions Eire's policy created in its relations with Winston Churchill and with the United States. The author also explores propaganda, censorship and Irish state security and the degree to which it involves secret co-operation with Britain. Disturbing issues are also raised like the IRA's relationship to Nazi Germany and ambivalent Irish attitudes to the Holocaust. Drawing upon both published and unpublished sources, this book illustrates the war's impact on people on both sides of the border and shows how it failed to resolve sectarian problems on Northern Ireland while raising higher the barriers of misunderstanding between it and the Irish state across its border.

Sectarian murder, torture, bloody power struggles and racketeering are what for many define their image of the Ulster Defence Association. Yet as Northern Ireland's Troubles worsened in 1971 and 1972, it emerged with a mass membership to defend Loyalist areas against the IRA and to uphold the Union with Britain. By 1974 it was able to defy the will of an elected government and it went on to formulate political strategies for working-class Loyalism. Ian S. Wood uses his specialist knowledge as well as extensive interviews to recount these events and the ruthless war waged by the UDA on the nationalist community. He explores issues such as the UDA's descent into criminality and its relationship with the 'secret war' conducted by Britain's undercover services and he assesses what impact the organisation had on the outcome of Europe's worst political and ethnic conflict between 1945 and the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia after 1990.

Sectarian murder, torture, bloody power struggles and racketeering are what for many define their image of the Ulster Defence Association. Yet as Northern Ireland's Troubles worsened in 1971 and 1972, it emerged with a mass membership to defend Loyalist areas against the IRA and to uphold the Union with Britain. By 1974 it was able to defy the will of an elected government and it went on to formulate political strategies for working-class Loyalism. Ian S. Wood uses his specialist knowledge as well as extensive interviews to recount these events and the ruthless war waged by the UDA on the nationalist community. He explores issues such as the UDA's descent into criminality and its relationship with the 'secret war' conducted by Britain's undercover services and he assesses what impact the organisation had on the outcome of Europe's worst political and ethnic conflict between 1945 and the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia after 1990.