There is now a considerable body of literature, both academic and popular, on Ireland since the 1960s. Much of it concentrates on Northern Ireland and the violent conflict that has been central to the region during this period. Many aspects of the two parts of the island have been examined, and, while research continues, it is possible to draw some conclusions about the processes of change and continuity that have determined Ireland’s political and social evolution. This book concentrates primarily on the conflict in Northern Ireland, while providing a partial and limited assessment of the Republic of Ireland. The reason for this is that “war and peace” refers to Northern Ireland; Britain and the Republic are generally brought in as bit players in that great drama.

The book provides a detailed description of the breakdown of order in Northern Ireland in the 1960s and the challenge to the Unionist party that had dominated the region since 1920. The shift from the nonviolent politics of civil rights to the Irish Republican Army’s (IRA’s) terrorist campaign in Northern Ireland, Britain, and the Republic receives considerable attention across several chapters. The inconclusive search for a solution to the conflict occupies the latter part of the book, and considerable attention is paid to the negotiation of the Good Friday and the St. Andrews Agreements, which finally secured devolved government in Northern Ireland. The author also provides a running commentary on the economy of both parts of Ireland and on cultural developments between 1960 and 2010. However, neither of these topics is treated with enough detail to justify their inclusion.

In a short review, it is difficult to address every topic taken up by the author. The book prompts two questions: To whom is it aimed and what does it add to our understanding of the conflict in Northern Ireland? The answer to the first question is not clear. Academics and specialists will be very familiar with the events described here, while more general audiences might find the detail bewildering. While the narrative structure will commend it to some, the failure to critically assess and discuss the literature on the subject weakens the book as a text. In respect of the second question, there is little new here, and it is surprising that the author has not taken a more detailed account of the archival material in Britain, Ireland, or the United States (although she does appear to have used material available online from the National Archives in London). Nor is there a satisfactory assessment of the available literature and the ongoing debates about the nature of the conflict and the motivation of the various actors. This is particularly the case in respect of Ulster Unionism, which is often treated as a unitary force rather than as a complex political movement. While the author may have little sympathy with Unionism, an understanding of the motivations of the majority community in Northern Ireland would have enhanced the study. The presentation of Unionist politicians is as villains, and the best parts are assigned to literary figures.

Nor does the author provide an adequate context for the conflict. The origin of partition is treated in a partial fashion, and the discussion reflects the nationalist view of the issue. No account is taken of the alternative view that partition was an equitable settlement of the conflicting demands of nationalists and unionists at that time. However, nationalist Ireland (north and south) refused to accept partition or the legitimacy of Northern Ireland, and this reinforced the siege mentality among Unionists. This does not justify the actions of successive Unionist governments, but it does provide a more adequate explanation for it. The author also fails to explore the nature of identity in Northern Ireland and the extent to which Unionists considered themselves to be British in the same way as people in Scotland and Wales. There are two national questions in Northern Ireland, not one as this book implies.

In other respects, this book falls well short of what one might expect from a study of Ireland since the 1960s. There is considerable emphasis on the restrictions of rights in Britain, Northern Ireland, and the Republic in response to violence but no discussion of how a liberal state might respond to a destructive campaign of violence by an unrepresentative terrorist group. What is also not adequately addressed is why a campaign of violence to achieve a united Ireland was initiated at the very time that major reforms were being promoted by the British government. Violence polarized opinion in Northern Ireland, and the majority community rightly believed that the IRA sought to force them into a united Ireland against their will. This was not about civil rights but about nationalist political aspirations, and the failure of Sunningdale in 1974 can be attributed to the nationalist insistence on including an Irish dimension in the proposed settlement. While civil liberties continued to be emphasized, nationalists were not prepared to accept a solution that excluded such a dimension. The author also does not take full account of the ethnoreligious basis of the conflict and the real difficulty in transcending these divisions. This can be appreciated in the Good Friday Agreement, which builds into the settlement an open recognition of the ethnoreligious dimension of the conflict. A further question prompted by this book is the extent to which violence works. It is unlikely that the Agreement would have been as generous to nationalists if the threat of violence from the IRA had not been a continuous presence at discussions, even when the IRA was not present. One implication is that, in ethnoreligious conflicts, the extremist normally sets the political agenda and often benefits from this, as has proven to be the case in Northern Ireland.