In light of the recent movement toward all-party talks - notwithstanding the IRA's resumption of terrorist bombing attacks in England - Tim Pat Coogan offers a balanced and reflective assessment of the complex conflicts in contemporary Northern Ireland. An authoritative observer of the nationalist cause with strong political contacts on both sides of the border, Coogan sets the historical context for the resurgence of centuries-old tensions that led to the civil protest and pogroms of the late 1960s.

He examines the introduction of British forces to the streets of Derry and Belfast and the reaction to their presence - at first welcomed as protection from Loyalist attack, they were soon resented by nationalists and many became victims of the Republican forces' outrage. Coogan insightfully probes the spread of IRA violence across the Irish Sea to key locations in Britain and the responses of the British government, its troops, and various Unionist organizations.