An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 37 authors: Michael Kennedy & Art Magennis Publisher: Four Courts Press (H/B 2014, P/B March 2017) www.fourcourtspress.ie isBn: 978-1-84682-656-6 Pages: 288 Price: €24.95 Now available in Paperback. In 1961 Irish United Nations peacekeepers went into combat in the Congolese province of Katanga. It was the Irish Defence Forces' first experience of active service since 1923. Irish diplomat Conor Cruise O'Brien headed the UN mission in Katanga. Former chief of staff of the defence forces, Lt Gen Seán MacEoin, was in overall command of UN troops in Congo. Irish units suffered casualties and had prisoners taken as the fighting in Katanga continued. The crisis now facing Taoiseach Seán Lemass became the most delicate and dangerous chapter in Ireland's foreign relations since 1945. Based on a first-hand account of the fighting by an Irish cavalry officer, previously unseen UN archives and the papers of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold, this book covers 18 critical months from July 1960 to December 1961, which almost tore the UN apart and which brought the realities of UN membership to Ireland. Military and diplomatic history, this book is an Irish perspective on a defining moment in the history of the UN, the Cold War and modern Africa. Michael Kennedy is the executive editor of the Royal Irish Academy's Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series. He has published widely on modern Irish diplomatic and military history. Comdt (Retd) Art Magennis served with the Defence Forces from 1940 to 1979. He undertook two tours of duty in Congo and was second-in-command of the 35th Battalion's Armoured Car Group in Elisabethville, Katanga, in 1961. IReLANd, The UNITed NATIONS ANd The CONgO A militAry AnD DiplomAtic history ThIS CRUeL STATION author: Martin Malone Publisher: Doire Press (June 2017) www.doirepress.com isBn: 978-1-907682490 Pages: 144 Price: €12 P/B Free World- Wide Shipping 'This Cruel Station' is a compellingly acute chronicle of history's sly, inexorable requisitions; these surgically precise but essentially humane observations represent a collection of stories as strong as you are likely to read all year. - Patrick McCabe This Cruel Station is a collection of stories delving into what it is like to be Irish and new Irish today. Inspiration for them was drawn from the small happenings of everyday life, allied with imagination and 'What if?' A writer, to my mind, has to slow the world down for his eye to catch the minute detail of life for his story. I like to write in such a way that leaves the reader with some work to do, to make sense of, disagree with, engage with a character or not. I try to write in as simple a style as possible, but with hidden depth. That is what I hope to achieve: that the style will encourage the readers to engage with these passing ships and their cargo of tough themes. Martin Malone a former soldier with six tours of duty to Lebanon and Iraq is the author of seven novels, a memoir, two short story collections and several radio plays. His first novel Us won the John B Keane/Sunday Independent Literature Award and was shortlisted for the Kerry Ingredients Irish Fiction Award. ShAdOw Of The TwINS author: Alan-James Kelly Publisher: Independently Published (16th Dec 2016) www.amazon.co.uk isBn: 978-1220151991 Pages: 392 Price: €3.35 ebook/€11.90 P/B "It is the silent among us who scream the loudest" Jack C. Regan is a soldier's soldier. From the outset, where we meet him in a Colombian forest, he is mission focused with almost fevered dedication. You are immediately drawn to the young man's loyalty to unit and mission, this dedication is not lessened by discovering his dark past. As you begin to learn about and understand the workings of his dark mind you realise that he is simply a killer. A remorseless, unsentimental, talented killer. Special Forces tactics worldwide Post 9/11 proclaimed the need for a new type of soldier, one that could apply JJE (Judge, Jury & Executioner) justice to those whose intent was to replicate the attacks of that fateful day. The US SOF deeply secretive Dark-Eye unit was developed to cancel those threats posed to America and J.C. Regan was the template that the team was founded upon. On learning of his sister's violent death Regan slips the shackles of the Dark-Eye Unit and releases his demons onto an unsuspecting town in central Italy, the town where the twins who killed his sister live in almost royal immunity to the law. The local mafia, led by Marco and Mauro Gasco silenced a journalist who was focusing unwanted light upon them, not knowing that by killing Kathy Regan her brother Jack would focus his mind's darkest desires onto their organisation. Regan's actions are brutal and shocking to read but, in the overall scheme of how his mind works and his undying loyalty to his dead sister, it becomes understandable and it is hard not to cheer him on as he scythes his way through the criminal organisation. MW

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