When the dust from the present troubles settles, the debt to those who have consistently and courageously campaigned against injustice and violence will be clear. One of those campaigners is Fr Des Wilson, who has now written a book that covers the struggle for justice and peace (note that it is justice and peace, not peace and then justice) in N Ireland. It would be unfair to Des Wilson to attempt to review his book out of its context, so it is necessary to sketch out the background first.

In the eyes of “The Man From The Daily Mail,” to quote the song of that title,

“Ireland is a very funny place, sir,

It’s a strange and a troubled land”.

And there’s no disputing that superficial observation, though it’s one of the few comments from that particular source regarding the present situation in N Ireland that I could agree with. For the characteristics of the present era of troubles in the North have been horror (the violence of a bloody Monday, a bloody Tuesday, a bloody Wednesday, a bloody Thursday, a bloody Friday, a bloody Saturday, and bloody Sunday) terror (sectarian warfare, intimidation, internment, rubber and plastic bullets) anger and frustration (sit-ins, demos, barricades, riots) and the constapt unemployment (Billy-now Lord-Blease of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said there was a “crisis in unemployment” in 1971 when the figure was 7% — it’s now 20% and climbing).