The period under review covers the years of 1984-87 - nearing the end of the third decade of the Troubles. It will use research and oral contributions from the mid to late 1980s and will show not only how the Provisional IRA (PIRA) grew in financial and logistical strength, but also how the Security Forces (SF) worked hard to contain them. It was also a period where the Republican terror group fully embraced Danny Morrison’s mantra: ‘The Armalite and the ballot box’ as they moved toward a realisation that the British military could not be beaten, but that they (PIRA) could at least sit down with them from a position of strength. Thereafter, their intention was not only political agitation, but also to keep up the terror campaign and force the British Government to talk; further to ensure that they - the British - accepted that there could only be an impasse (albeit one of continued violence). However, while they fought, talked, and then fought again, a further 356 people died. This book will cover every major incident of the period - commencing with the ambush of an off-duty UDR soldier, Robert Elliott, through to the shameless bombing of Enniskillen. Significantly, both incidents were at the hands of the Provisional IRA. It will also look at the continued negative interference of the United States and the vast contribution of the Brit-hating Irish-Americans through NORAID, which ensured the killing and the violence would continue. AUTHOR: Ken Wharton is 59 and is resident now in Australia with his partner Helen. Father of seven and grandfather to three with a fourth pending, he is a skydiver and former football referee. He is also a former soldier and now author of three oral histories on the Northern Ireland troubles. He writes from the perspective of the British soldier as he seeks to put across their story of a conflict, largely forgotten by both Government and public, which claimed the lives of around 1300 military lives. He has only been writing since 2007 but is planning a further oral history of the troubles, a book on the Australians in Vietnam and a childrens’ science fiction book over the next year or two. There is a clamour from veterans of the Northern Ireland conflict to tell their story and ensure that the truth comes out and in Ken Wharton they have found a conduit for those stories and a man they can trust to ensure that the truth is finally told about the conflict which raged not only a short 30 minute flight from home but also on our own doorsteps.
50 b/w photographs