The Armed Peace: Life and Death after the Ceasefires

by Brian Rowan

The year 1994 marked a seminal point in the Irish peace process. The IRA and the Combined Loyalist Military Command had just announced their ceasefires. This was the new beginning—or so it seemed. The original IRA ceasefire was blown away by the London Docklands bomb explosion in February 1996. The loyalists killed again, and the largest of the paramilitary organizations in this community—the Ulster Defence Association—became an enemy of the peace process. In The Armed Peace, Brian Rowan looks at life and death after the ceasefires. He examines the transition from war to peace, the struggle between guns and government, and the intelligence battle during which the IRA is said to have ventured behind enemy lines. Long after 1994, the spooks, the spies, and the IRA's director of intelligence were still at play. Rowan writes on his contacts with the IRA's P. O'Neill and uses his republican, loyalist, and security sources to tell the inside story of the ceasefires and Northern Ireland's long journey from war towards peace.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2003