An Cosantóir

28 REVIEWS the RUC had been killed in Lisburn, it was a killing specifically ordered by the IRA to strike fear into the many security forces members who lived in what the IRA themselves referred to as the 'Citadel.' Lisburn was perceived as being simply too dangerous for IRA Active Service Units (ASUs) to operate in, because it was a predominantly Protestant garrison town. The killing of this man, an RUC photographer, family man and avid pigeon fancier had the due shock effect. It also had an obvious shocking effect on his family as his death was witnessed by his two young sons. His IRA killer dressed in a pin stripe suit posed as someone from the pigeon racing fraternity. IRA activists interrogated at Castlereagh identified and matched McAllister from an English racing pigeon magazine where his photo had appeared in articles that he had contributed. It was this piece of otherwise innocuous information that led his killer, ironically a republican Protestant, former British army soldier, who had converted to militant republicanism when he faced discrimination from within his own community over his marriage to a Catholic woman. His 'conversion' was total to the cause he embraced and even now has no regrets about taking the life of Millar McAllister. The Terrorism expert Professor Andrew Silke has described Killing Rage by the Irish Republican Eamon Collins as one of the most important books to emerge from the Troubles, in its physiological description of how one man followed the path to revolutionary terrorism and planned the killing of the IRA's perceived enemies. In time this work, Anatomy of a Killing by the award-winning Journalist Ian Cobain will be seen in the same light. In a work that reads like a thriller, but is not fiction, it details in chilling detail the meticulous planning and preparation in the killing of Millar McAllister. It charts the road of the key protagonists in the IRA ASU in their conversion to militant republicanism. It also deals with the immediate aftermath of the killing where the IRA ASU were arrested, interrogated, their trail and subsequent jailing, and their view of their role at this remove. The book also gives an insight into the claustrophobic, paranoid atmosphere that existed in Northern Ireland during this period, and how very few sections of society were immune from the violence, a modern generation can forget just how intense and prolonged this sustained visceral turmoil in a relatively small place was. This is a very considered piece of work by Cobain, nonjudgmental and dispassionate throughout. As Cobain leads to the dreadful denouement of the killing, he also examines the political backdrop of the conflict, the evolution and development of both British security policy and the corresponding Long War strategy enunciated by Gerry Adams. Cobain has chillingly displayed that the death of Millar McAllister was not just a statistic but another "ripple of grief" that then and now affected the lives of a cohort of people on both sides of the political and religious divide. This Reviewer in conversation with the Journalist David McKittrick described the book Lost Lives which he co-edited, which specifies chronologically every one of some 3,700 deaths that took place during the Troubles: as a terrible but important book. When McKittrick asked why I told him that a good friend from Northern Ireland had said that every household in Ireland should have a copy, to remind future generations of the ripples of grief and anguish caused by these deaths; and as a warning to dissuade a younger generation of any supposed glamour associated with violence. One of these "ripples of grief" is the death listed in Lost Lives as number 2,017, the killing of RUC Constable Millar McAllister on an otherwise quiet unremarkable afternoon in Lisburn on Saturday 22 April 1978. At this juncture of the Troubles not a single member of Included in this book's 192 pages of military history are over 400 photographs, some unique of the Civil War, Emergency Period and the author's own photos taken of FCA days in Kerry from 1960's to 2003, including Colonel Leo Quinlan's Lecture "The Siege of Jadotville" in Listowel 2017 & 100th Anniversary WW1 Listowel 2018. This book is about Soldiers that answered various military calls in the period. It is presented without judgement or reason for becoming a soldier, but Michael hopes that the reader will get a better understanding of the motivations behind soldiering and the life of a soldier. Michael Guerin is a native of Listowel and was a member of the FCA (Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil – Local Defence Force) from 1962 to 2003. He previously published the "The Lartigue Listowel & Ballybunion Railway" and "Listowel Workhouse Union" Information includes: • Wolfe Tone's retreat to the Shannon Estuary on a French ship in 1796 • The British response in fortifying the Shannon Estuary during the Napoleonic period • Military History from Church of Ireland records • The story of Horatio Kitchener and Those that answered his call to arms WW1 • The War of Independence & the Civil war in North Kerry • The Emergency 1939 to FCA Days in Kerry • The Building of Fort Shannon 1942 (near Tarbert) • Using material researched from contemporary sources, step by step we witnessed the unfolding drama and birth pangs of Ireland's nationhood –Military History researched over many years. Taken from www.amazon.com Review by Dr. Rory Finegan (Comdt Retd) Anatomy of a Killing: Life & Death on a Divided Island SOLDIERS We Will Be Author: Ian Cobain Publisher: Granta ISBN: 9781783786589 Pages: 288 Price: €16.99 Author: Michael Guerin Where to buy: omahonys.ie ISBN: 9780992742423 Pages: 192 Price: €12.99 BOOKS

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