The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966–1995 and the Search for Peace

by Tim Pat Coogan

THE STORY OF the IRA from the collapse of the Whitelaw talks is one of evolution from a rather hobbledehoy movement, fuelled by a schoolboy enthusiasm as much as anything else, and unlimited recruitment, into one of the most tightly focused, disciplined and ruthless guerrilla movements the world has seen. This is how the Provisionals’ HQ in Derry’s Bogside no-go area appeared to me in 1972 before Operation Motorman shut it down: …It was more like a youth hostel than a terrorist headquarters. The place was filled with young boys and gjrls, and Martin McGuinness, the blond, six-foot leader of the IRA in the city, at the time was himself only twenty-one. There was laughter and chat in the headquarters as though those who came and went were going on mountaineering excursions instead of setting out to kill someone or blow up something. The house was full of boxes of clothes either for use in disguise or to be passed out to needy people in the area, while other cartons contained fuses, ammunition, and some weapons. In the kitchen chattering girls sat around a fire and made tea for anyone who wanted it…