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Ed
Moloney's book The Secret History of The IRA
is not just another shelf piece that makes up the
voluminous canon of literature about the Provisionals.
All truth is bitter and when apologists for the Provisionals
rush to rubbish and malign his book then it would
be fair comment that the bitter truth in this case
is indeed a bitter pill and the only ones not swallowing
it are those who want to write or see history written
as they would tell it. For Napoleon history was a
fable agreed upon; for Joyce's Stephen Daedelus it
was a nightmare from which he is continually trying
to awaken.
So
what's different about Moloney, Bowyer Bell, Mallie
or Coogan? Yes, Moloney's credentials are a major
asset; former journalist of the year, northern editor
of the Irish Times and Sunday Tribune,
but probably the book's most valuable asset as colleague
Eamonn McCann observed is 'the measure of the solidity
of his reputation that Sinn Fein supporters began
rubbishing his book months before he delivered the
final draft'.
Sinn
Fein's Rita O Hare says "no-one in the IRA has
talked to him for years". How would she know.
It certainly wasn't Gerry Adams for he was never in
the Provos!
If
the Provos were in power, Moloney would probably
be the best banned (author) in the land. The difference
with Moloney's book is the timing and impact. The
former because all has changed … utterly, and
the latter because it will have a political impact
at a time of great political change. The pivotal character
is Gerry Adams and his involvement in IRA operations
in the 70's. Moloney maintains Adams was commander
of the Belfast Brigade, at the time of the Disappeared,
the Unkowns, No Go areas, etc. Adams maintains he
was never a member of the IRA which is akin to Jomo
Kenyata saying he was never in the Mau Mau. He has
presented the facts here in stark and impassioned
detail. It is a story of loss, pain, cruelty, lost
lives, lost youth and unimaginable sacrifice. Those
who carried the struggle will read this book and wince
or weep. It grasps many nettles and exposes unpalatable
truths. From the lean times of the Sixties to the
rise (from the ashes of '69) of the Provisionals in
the wake of the Unionist/RUC pogroms to herald a new
phase in the fight for Irish freedom.
Between
'Freedom '74. '75. '76', 'Long Hot Summers', Ulsterisation
of the war effort, the Hunger Strikes, Loughgall massacre,
secret and not so secret talks, church and political
intermediaries, backroom negotiations, deniable and
undeniable deals and so on ad infinitum. Moloney's
pragmatism is evident in the detail.
Barbed
as the truth may be there is something here which
differentiates it from more academic predecessors.
There is a dimension of reality and historicism which
puts it beyond accusations of rhetoric and falsehood.
This is the story of the Provisionals, warts and all,
from birth pangs to a political maturity that is currently
manifest in the real politik of constitutional
and parliamentary democracy.
The
Good Friday Agreement heralded as a 'stepping stone'
to a united Ireland, what ever that may be, has become
a political tar baby with which many republicans are
finding increasingly difficult to come to grips (or
extract themselves). Moloney dedicates his book to
all those 'who lost their lives in the Northern
Ireland Troubles'. He should include all those
who survived them and who like the characters in Joyce's
Dubliners had painfully to come to terms with
their own epiphanies. Moloney's book speeds up this
process.
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