
Contents
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The war The war
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Soldiers’ stories Soldiers’ stories
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Politicians’ stories Politicians’ stories
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Conclusion Conclusion
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Notes Notes
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1 ‘The truth, the whole truth…’: some British political and military memoirs of the Troubles
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Published:December 2016
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Abstract
There is a huge body of memoir literature relating to the ‘Troubles’. This chapter looks at two bodies of British memoirs: first the military memoir and second, the political memoir. It looks at three accounts written by members of the Parachute Regiment, A F N Clarke’s Contact, Harry McCallion’s Killing Zone and Michael Asher’s Shoot to Kill They are discussed in terms of what they have to say about the culture of the ‘Paras’ and the contribution this culture made to intensifying the conflict, providing the Provisional IRA with a base of support that made it possible for them to wage a protracted war. The discussion of political memoirs looks at the memoirs of a number of Labour politicians, James Callaghan, Harold Wilson, Merlyn Rees, Roy Mason, Peter Hain and Tony Blair. It chronicles how the change from Old Labour to New Labour also involved a shift in attitude and tone, from support for eventual Irish unity, hostility towards the Unionists and Ian Paisley in particular to support for a reformed ‘Unionism’. Callaghan and Tony Blair’s memoirs are compared very much to the latter’s disadvantage. The chapter argues for the importance of memoir literature.
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