"The Provisional IRA - From Insurrection to Parliament" - Tommy McKearney (audio of book launch)

[C. Flower]

via the CLR.

I haven't read this book, but it looks like one worth reading and discussing -

http://citizenpartridge.wordpress.co...mmy-mckearney/

On Wednesday 10th August 2011, Tommy McKearney launched his book The Provisional IRA – From Insurrection to Parliament in Connolly Books. Over 70 people crowded into (and some had to remain in the street) the small shop to hear veteran trade unionist Mick O’Reilly and éirígí chairperson Brian Leeson talk about the work and its lessons for, and relevance to, the Irish struggle for social and national liberation today. Tommy himself then spoke (very briefly) about the book.

I have not yet read the book (I bought my copy at the launch today), but judging by the great blurbs and superlatives by friends and comrades, it seems like a must-read. You should go and buy it from Connolly Books! Anyway…

To listen to/download the recording in mp3 or ogg format, please go here.

Speakers:

Pauline Conroy (Chair)
Eugene McCartan (General Secretary of the Communist Party of Ireland)
Mick O’Reilly (Vice President of Dublin Council of Trade Unions)
Brian Leeson (Chairperson of éirígí)
Tommy McKearney (author and former Provisional IRA member, blanketman and 1980 hunger striker)

And here is the blurb from the publisher’s (Pluto) website:

This book analyses the underlying reasons behind the formation of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), its development, where this current in Irish republicanism is at present and its prospects for the future.

Tommy McKearney, a former IRA member who was part of the 1980 hunger strike, challenges the misconception that the Provisional IRA was only, or even wholly, about ending partition and uniting Ireland. He argues that while these objectives were always the core and headline demands of the organisation, opposition to the old Northern Ireland state was a major dynamic for the IRA’s armed campaign. As he explores the makeup and strategy of the IRA he is not uncritical, examining alternative options available to the movement at different periods, arguing that its inability to develop a clear socialist programme has limited its effectiveness and reach.

This authoritative and engaging history provides a fascinating insight into the workings and dynamics of a modern resistance movement

[5intheface]

If Tommy wrote it, it has to have merit.

[Cáthasaigh]

If Tommy wrote it, it has to have merit.

Tommy McKearney fought the war, went through a hunger strike and the blanket protest, lost a brother on IRA operations to an accidental explosion and one more than 15 years later to an SAS ambush as well as a civilan brother running the family business murdered along with his uncle by the British-directed Portadown UVF in 1992 . As well as that the mother and father-in-law of Tommy's sister were also murdered by the British-directed Portadown UVF later that same year and an elderly couple were murdered simply because they shared his surname in 1975.

Tommy McKearney is under no illusions as to the nature of the British state.

[5intheface]

Tommy McKearney fought the war, went through a hunger strike and the blanket protest, lost a brother on IRA operations to an accidental explosion and one more than 15 years later to an SAS ambush as well as a civilan brother running the family business murdered along with his uncle by the British-directed Portadown UVF in 1992 . As well as that the mother and father-in-law of Tommy's sister were also murdered by the British-directed Portadown UVF later that same year and an elderly couple were murdered simply because they shared his surname in 1975.

Tommy McKearney is under no illusions as to the nature of the British state.

and yet a less bitter and more open minded man you couldn't find.

[Cáthasaigh]

and yet a less bitter and more open minded man you couldn't find.

Tommy is the type of uncorruptable Republican that people should pay attention to.

Tommy is truly in the non-sectarian spirit of Wolfe Tone.

[C. Flower]

I'll take that as a recommendation then. I'll read it as soon as I've finished George Gilmore's pamphlet.

[5intheface]

I'll take that as a recommendation then. I'll read it as soon as I've finished George Gilmore's pamphlet.

If he writes with the poise, style and clarity with which he talks then I'm certain you won't regret it.

Tommy was one of the first to openly question the leadership of SF but somehow he has managed not to be dragged into any slanging match with anyone.

I do recall a Radio 5 discussion with him and, I think, Paul Berry of the DUP and after destroying Berry's third rate, fundamentalist Gospel nonsense, he even tried to defend Berry and play down his own obvious mental superiority. Very odd behaviour for anyone commenting on politics.