A review by rachelagain
War and an Irish Town by Eamonn McCann

challenging informative slow-paced

5.0

This 1974 account of the then-ongoing Northern Ireland conflict provides an accessible Marxist analysis of events from 1968-1973, and the centuries of history that formed the “Orange machine” that ran the Northern Ireland state. The book begins with McCann’s upbringing in Derry, then charts the civil rights movement and beginning of outright conflict in the late 1960s before moving back to the 19th century to begin his analysis of all Ireland capitalism. This might sound like an overly laboured analysis but the fact that nearly all of McCann’s political analysis (especially on the Republic of Ireland) holds up after 48 years shows otherwise. He particularly nails how alienating Protestant working class people from their own interests and Catholic counterparts has always been essential to the existence of the Northern Ireland state. Further, he establishes that true anti-sectarianism and anti-partitionism in Ireland north and south has always been resisted by the ruling classes to preserve the economic interests of capital (namely landowners, industrial barons, the ascendancy class, and contemporary private enterprise). Some reviewers have criticised the book for jumping around in time but I found it fine. The text mirrors McCann’s manner of speaking in real life: with sharp wit, a dark, wry humour and a sense of the long arc of history. I would recommend this to any Marxists looking for an accessible “origins of the Troubles” read, and to anyone already familiar with Troubles 101 who is ready to read a deep dive on class in the six counties context. Anyone who enjoyed or wanted to read The Price of My Soul by Bernadette Devlin (highly recommend) will also love this book. Thankfully copies of this book are still available online in multiple editions: I recommend looking on eBay or World of Books.