BOOK REVIEW: 'Voices From the Grave': Two Men of Violence Share Their Stories from Troubled Northern Ireland
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
It's fitting that I write this review of Ed Moloney's "Voices From the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland" (PublicAffairs, 544 pages, $19.95) on July 12. History is never over in Ireland and the 12th of July marks the anniversary of the 1690 defeat of Catholic King James II by the Protestant William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne on the east coast of Ireland. William had deposed James in 1688, but James fought on until the final defeat at the River Boyne and William became the undisputed King of England and Ireland.
July 12 is the official beginning of the "Marching Season" in Northern Ireland, where Protestants who are loyal to the British Crown march in support of "King Billy", deliberately targeting Catholic neighborhoods. By and large, Roman Catholics -- "Republicans" -- favor unification of the six northern counties of Ulster or Northern Ireland with the 26 counties of the republic of Ireland, while Protestants -- "Loyalists" -- want Northern Ireland to remain an integral part of the United Kingdom.
Despite the many peace agreements -- including the Good Friday pact of 1998 -- designed to end violence in Northern Ireland, at least 27 police officers were injured in clashes overnight in Belfast, Northern Ireland, including three hit by shotgun pellets, police said Monday, July 12.
CNN reported that "about 200 people rushed into the streets around 11:45 p.m. Sunday (7:45 p.m. ET), with some throwing objects and explosives, police said. The injuries are not thought to be serious, police spokesman John Anderson said. The violence took place in two different parts of the city on the eve of a holiday often marked by tension between Catholics and Protestants."
Ed Moloney's "A Secret History of the IRA" is the best-informed account yet written of the IRA's evolution from ruthless guerrilla army into governmental party, ruling Northern Ireland alongside its most intransigent former enemies.
Now -- In "Voices From the Grave" -- Moloney draws from the Boston College Oral History Archives on the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, which has collected transcripts of interviews with Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) veterans. The two men, now dead, in Moloney's book are Brendan Hughes (AKA "The Dark") of the IRA and David Ervine of the UVF. Under the terms of the Boston College agreements with the participants in this oral history project, the interviews couldn't be released before the deaths of the participants.
Brendan Hughes, who died in 2008, was a legend in the Republican movement and in Moloney's book he reveals details of the violence he organized, including drug dealing to raise money for guns and bombs and gun running, including an attempt to use the QE2 ocean liner to transport weapons from the U.S. to Ireland. He was a close friend of Gerry Adams, current leader of the Sinn Fein political arm of the IRA, and was arrested along with Adams and escaped from the Long Kesh prison and took control of the IRA in Belfast.
Hughes' transcript refutes Adams' statements that he (Adams) never took part in violence, stating that Adams ordered the murder and secret burial of Jean McConville almost 40 years ago. "I never carried out a major operation without the OK or the order from Gerry," Hughes said. "And for him to sit in his plush office in Westminster or Stormont or wherever and deny it, I mean, it's like Hitler denying that there was ever a Holocaust."
Loyalist Ervine, who died after a heart attack and stroke in 2007, reveals that both members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Irish National Liberation Army were involved in the drug trade: "There is a notorious story about a dance hall in Northern Ireland, where, on one side of the hall, the Irish National Liberation Army sold certain types of drugs, and, on the other side, Billy Wright's UVF members sold a different type of drugs....These were diametrically opposed, absolutely violent enemies of each other, who could function together in that respect."
"Voices From the Grave" is an important work of oral history, and thanks to Moloney's expertise on the subject of the violence in Ireland, is fleshed out and set in context so a non-specialist reader can grasp the details of the violence of the IRA and the UVF and other factions. Moloney includes a chronology, listing the events of each year through 2008, with each year's deaths and the running total -- now more than 3,700 -- of total deaths in the wake of the "Troubles." The chronology actually begins in 1170 with the first "English invasion of Ireland led by Strongbow."
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