Only a few now bother to deny that a 'dirty war' took place in Northern Ireland during the 'Troubles'. It began with the arrival of Brigadier Frank Kitson in Belfast in September 1970. He adapted many of the counter-insurgency tactics he had developed in the colonies to overwhelm the IRA. The low point in his reign of terror was Bloody Sunday, January 1972, when fourteen people were murdered by 'Kitson's Private Army', an elite company attached to 1 Para. Many questions remain unanswered about Kitson's Irish War, especially Bloody Sunday: * Did a few mavericks spin out of control? * Or, did a handful of key operatives set out to 'teach' the Bogside a lesson for tolerating the IRA in their midst? * In the most malign scenario, did they attempt to provoke a battle with the IRA as part of a plan to smash Derry's no-go area? The timorous Saville Inquiry failed to delve into this abyss but it did at least point toward some dark corners where the truth hid from sight. Kitson and Col Derek Wilford, who led 1 Para during the Ballymurphy massacre in August 1971 and in Derry on Bloody Sunday, are to be found lurking in most of them. So too is their former superior, Gen. Robert Ford.

Book Information
ISBN 9781781177983
Author David Burke
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint The Mercier Press Ltd
Publisher The Mercier Press Ltd
Weight(grams) 129g