Belfast Diary: War as a Way of Life

by John Conroy

Overview

“For those puzzled by Northern Ireland, Belfast Diary offers a well-written, sympathetic and clear-eyed view” of life during the Troubles (New York Times Book Review)
 
In the late 1960s, the ongoing conflict between the Protestant unionists and Catholic nationalists of Northern Ireland—divided by their stance on the country’s constitutional position as part of the United Kingdom—escalated to new, terrifying heights. Chicago journalist John Conroy was there on the frontlines, living among the people most affected by it. In Belfast Diary, Conroy offers a street-level view of life in a Catholic Ghetto in West Belfast, painting vivid portraits of its citizens and the violence they faced during the Troubles: bomb threats, murder, police brutality, and more.
 
Conroy’s recounting of this tumultuous moment in Northern Irish history has been hailed as the best explanation of the more than twenty-five-year conflict. Now with a new afterword, Belfast Diary conveys an understanding that is an essential prerequisite to peace: the resolution of intractable problems around the world requires understanding ordinary people as well as leaders.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807002179
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	06/30/1995
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

John Conroy is an award-winning Chicago journalist and a MacArthur Foundation and Alicia Patterson Foundation grant recipient.

Editorial Reviews

For those puzzled by Northern Ireland, Belfast Diary offers a well-written, sympathetic and clear-eyed view.—New York Times Book Review

"Mr. Conroy's account is suffused with an ominous tension. . . . He eschews the reductive, and succeeds in mounting a disturbing case." —New Yorker

"A sensitive and perceptive chronicle . . ." —London Times

From the Publisher

Conroy's account of day-to-day life in Northern Ireland provides a context in which ordinary people in Belfast's small, working-class Catholic district of Clonard can be seen and heard. ``This is an informative, powerful, sensitive evocation of people who `don't need any practice' in suffering,'' praised PW. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In the 1980s, Conroy, a Chicago journalist, lived on the front lines of the troubles in Northern Ireland, among the people most affected by the conflict. This is his street-level view, vividly narrated. Originally published in 1987. With a new afterword written in the era of the IRA cease-fire. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews