Watching the Door: A Memoir 1971-78

by Kevin Myers

As an Irish Catholic raised in Leicester, fresh from University College Dublin with a first in History, Kevin Myers is sent north to work for the Belfast bureau of RTE News. There he covers the increasingly vicious conflict erupting in the city as the IRA campaign begins. Reporting too for Dublin's Hibernia, the London Observer and NBC Radio for North America, Kevin Myers becomes the eyes and ears for an uncomprehending world, chronicling the collapse of Northern Irish society, from internment to the La Mon bombing. Raw, candid and courageous, Watching the Door documents the deeds of loyalist gangs, provos, paratroopers, politicians, British agents and an indomitable citizenry, forming a remarkable double portrait of a divided society and an emergent self -- a witness to humanity, and inhumanity, on both sides of a sectarian faultline. In his wonderfully vivid, trenchant, first-hand account of life on the streets of Belfast during the height of the Troubles, a young Kevin Myers witnesses the blood fueds and chaos of a people on the brink of civil war. His descriptions of violence, counter-violence and emotional free-fall, combine humour with reflection, eros with thanatos; they render history in the making. By interweaving the political and the personal in a tale at once self-deprecating, poignant and sexually buoyant, Watching the Door is a coming-of-age story like no other. It is evocative and passionate, and it records a pivotal time in Ireland's recent past, blending articulacy with savage indignation in a classic of modern reportage.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ireland, Memoir, Irish Literature, Biography, Autobiography

339 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Journalist, broadcaster and novelist Kevin Myers wrote for The Irish Times, The Spectator, Sunday Telegraph, Irish Independent and The Sunday Times in a career that spanned over thirty years. He reported from Africa, Central America, India and Japan, covered the wars in Lebanon and Bosnia, and was journalist of the year for his dispatches from Beirut. His first memoir, Watching the Door: A Memoir, 1971–1978, was published in 2006.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that anyone interested in The Troubles should read. Myers, an English-born child of Irish parents, goes to Northern Ireland in the early 70's when he was in his early 20's. He ends up spending more than 6 years there, working erratically as a journalist. His straightforward accounts of the death and destruction, much of which he witnessed close hand,conveys the horror of the times. He is haunted by many of these deaths. It is hard to believe he survived countless encounters with paramilitaries of all persuasions, as well as the RUC and British Army. Often, he escaped through sheer luck. Other times he was warned he was on the hit list of this or that paramilitary group, because he was believed to be an informant. He drinks his way through the 70's, falls in love once, and mostly falls into bed with any woman he runs into. In 1970's Belfast, there wasn't a lot else to do,he writes. Myers thought the war in the North would only last a few years. In the end, realizing peace was not coming anytime soon, he left. Myers went on to work in other trouble spots, including Bosnia, and waited more than 30 years to write this book. This speaks volumes about the reality of Northern Ireland. Many of the people from 70's Belfast were dead by the time he wrote the book.

[Nicola · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really interesting book. Over the years I have read quite a lot about the Northern Irish troubles. I was also born and raised in Northern Ireland at the time they were happening so witnessed the tensions and have a fairly good understanding of the politics and mind set that existed at the time - something most books go to lengths to try to explain. What grabbed my attention with this book was that it didn’t seem to be setting out to explain it, but yet managed to do so better than many that do. Kevin was simply sharing his experiences and explaining his view point at the time and now and how it has impacted his life. What is also interested is that it manages to be quite one sided and yet completely neutral at the same time. Kevin in his youth clearly supported one side over the other but somehow managed to keep a grasp of the complete lunacy that was involved with the whole thing. He believed the view point of one side but would happily mingle with both – something almost completely unthinkable at the time, especially for someone like him with the connections he had, the information he knew and the things he had seen and done – how he is alive and well today to tell his tale is something of a miracle. People were killed for far less than the things this man was getting up to! And yet, years have passed since his time living and working here and with time has come perspective and understanding. He looks back at his younger self and is able to see the flaws in some of the beliefs he once had. He has been able to step back and see that the side he was once against suffered horribly too and that there were no winners in this struggle, only loss on the most cruel and tragic of levels - and not just of life but of youth, and freedom and hope! He has no political agenda now. It feels like his only agenda with this book is to purge himself of guilt that has followed him since his time here. I’d love to speak to him and know if it helped him to tell this story.

I only have one criticism of the book really and that it felt that Kevin tarred us all with the same brush, and there was quite a lot of stereotyping going on at parts. I can accept that easier when he is talking about the 70’s where it might have been more justifiable, if still a little exaggerated - but this also extended into him speaking about current day Northern Ireland. We still have our problems here (I write this after a week of protests and riots over a flag!) and there is still division and people who are still hurt and angry. What happened here was beyond horrendous and it went on for the best part of 30 years and had been brewing for decades even before that. The things that people here witnessed, the loss the individuals and communities alike felt then - they still carry that with them now. Those things don’t vanish with the signing of an agreement and an American switching on a Christmas tree. But Northern Ireland IS NOT the place it was in the 70’s. I have lived through both the troubles and peace and I KNOW it is different. When I was five I ran up stairs at night to bed in a mad panic that a terrorist in a balaclava was watching me though the window in my hall ready to shoot! My five year old Godchildren don’t have that fear – they are scared of the bogey men and fictional beasts which we can promise them sincerely do not exist – this was not something our parents could do for us!! Now we have something we didn’t have back then – we have hope!

[Dermot O'Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Watching the Door was a birthday gift; I wouldn't have thought to buy it otherwise but now I am glad I read it. It tells of the author's experience in Northern Ireland as a journalist reporting on the Troubles. The constant stream of bombings and murders that headlined Irish news bulletins when I was growing up made me view the six counties as a grey, bleak, angry and most of all vicious place. I was wrong; according to Kevin Myers's account, it was worse than that. Nevertheless, Watching the Door is an enthralling and at times entertaining account.

Effectively, it is just a litany of anecdotes of mostly shootings and bombings but also of the various characters on both sides of the divide that Myers managed to befriend. He does quite a good job of stringing these stories into a coherent narrative but it still felt like it lacked an overall theme. I was surprised to learn how often the author skirted with death himself. Strangely - but entertainingly - he recounts stories of his many sexual escapades that helped lighten the tone of an otherwise depressing and shocking set of experiences. For me, it was an unexpectedly absorbing read and one that I would recommend to anyone who wants an insight into the madness that was the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland of the 1970s.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a frank memoir from an Irishman who as a young reporter was sent to Northern Ireland where he was to cover the Troubles. There are other aspects to this book but this is what the reader will take away from it.

Myers met Loyalist terrorists who saw nothing unusual in going fishing with well-connected forces of law and order, given that they were friends; he met Nationalist terrorists who agreed, sitting in the pub, that execution style killings were deplorable, then sent someone for a gun to kill him and he barely escaped after a warning. He says at the same time all the people he met would invite him to partake of hospitality in their home, including ham sandwiches which he later found would have made the family's own dinner. When Myers was a witness to an issue, the security forces set him up with a false drinking and driving charge and his own solicitor refused to fight it.

Life was confusing, dangerous and active. We can be glad it's different today. Myers went on to an extended career in journalism, mainly in the Irish Times, and has never hesitated to be outspoken.

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kevin Myers muistelee teoksessaan "Watching the Door: Drinking Up, Getting Down, and Cheating Death in 1970s Belfast" (Atlantic Books, 2008) nuoruuttaan toimittajana 1970-luvun Belfastissa, joka oli täynnä väkivaltaa ja kuolemaa, kun Pohjois-Irlannin kohtalosta väännettiin kättä asein ja pommein.

Troubles-nimellä tunnettu aikakausi näyttäytyy kirjassa kaikessa kaameudessaan. Myers kuvaa tapahtumia koruttomasti, eikä asetu sen enempää tasavaltalaisen IRA:n kuin brittimielisten lojalistien puolelle. Vihan, väkivallan ja terrorin kierre myrkyttää ympäristönsä tehokkaasti. Surullisia ihmiskohtaloita mahtuu kymmenen tusinaan, ja kärsimään joutuvat myös monet viattomat.

Lisäksi kirjassa juodaan runsaasti alkoholia, tehdään tuttavuutta vastakkaisen sukupuolen kanssa ja syyllistytään jos jonkinlaisiin nuoruuden hairahduksiin. Seksijuttuja olisi ehkä voinut kuvata vähemmänkin, tosin myönnän hymyilleeni kertomukselle, jossa joudutaan melkein rysän päältä kiinni, kun harrastuksekseen painoja nosteleva ja IRA:han kuuluva aviomies tulee kesken kaiken kotiin.

Pohjois-Irlannin lähihistoriasta kiinnostuneelle kirjaa voi kyllä suositella ns. ruohonjuuritason kokijan muistelmina - konfliktiin syvällisemmin voi sitten tutustua vaikkapa David McKittrickin (jolle tämä kirja on muuten omistettu) teoksen Making Sense of the Troubles: The Story of the Conflict in Northern Ireland kautta.

PS: Lukemani perusteella Kevin Myers on muuten aika mölö tyyppi, jonka näkemyksiin ei oikein voi yhtyä. No, onneksi tästä kirjasta ei moisia löydy.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

christ, this book was intense. The sheer breadth of experience which Myers reports on is stunning, and that he stayed in Belfast during the Troubles for so long when he was able to get out is surprising. Also, the personal attention to the unending and sometimes senseless violence is nearly too much to take.
The author is an Irish-catholic who was brought up as a child in England and then moved back to the Republic to live with family in his pre-teen years due to the death of his father, giving him a pretty interesting vantage point from which to view the Irish nationalist struggle. Under the sway of 60s new left and revolutionary ideologies, he heads up to Belfast to lend a hand to the Republican cause and quickly learns he is in over his head and out of his element. A smart dude with a penchant for getting people to trust him, and an eye for the shifting moralities about him, he becomes a journalist instead of formally joining the Republican struggle. So- Belfast, the 70s, access to both Republican and Loyalist fighters.... you can imagine what the bulk of the story consists of. The violence is stunning, and fucking terrifying. The details of what 'my side' was involved in as well as the ones they were fighting against... is stunning. And disheartening. And another example of something worth fighting for being taken over by those who just want to fight, who revel in blood and hatred, and who use a 'cause' as their cover.
That said, Myers' tone can be frustrating. I'm not sure if he was trying to be 'extra' even-handed so as not to be pigeonholed as an Irish nationalist and dismissed, or something to that effect, but while condemning the IRA's most egregious actions (as well as those of the Loyalist paramilitaries), he seems to conclude that the IRA should just give up. He doesn't state this explicitly, but the overall tone is that the IRA instigated a fight and were bloodthirsty and wanted to blow people up and why the hell won't they just stop? To be fair, the book doesn't set out to offer solutions, and to see 'your team' fucking up tends to elicit a more savage and virulent reaction (SO MAD at the punks sometime!), but it is incredibly difficult to look at the situation in Northern Ireland and make an argument for English rule. The imperial age is over and there's just no way to justify it. He could be just coming from the position that whatever saves the most lives is the best solution, and there is a strong logic to that, but simply 'giving up' Northern Ireland would just be letting a wrong go unchecked, no matter how far in the past it was originally wronged (and his non-explicit argument tends to have a lot of that feel to it, also- "This all happened so long ago, why can't you let it go?"). Bombing Protestant pubs or hotels full of Scottish Terrier (yes, the dog breed) nerds sure as hell isn't the way to go, either, but it is important to remember Republicans were not alone in these types of violent acts. That said, this guy lived through some SHIT, and he's definitely a voice to be taken into account. Ultimately I like that he isn't a towing-the-line IRA man, but some things he said definitely went against my gut feelings on the matters and the opinions I was instilled with. That's generally the mark of useful reading, though, eh?

Perhaps ironically, I just finished listening to some Brits sing "Fight War, Not Wars". Check this book out.

[Peter Colclasure · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sex, drugs, and the IRA.

Of all the books I’ve about the Troubles, this was the most visceral account. Imagine if Hunter S. Thompson had reported from Belfast in the ‘70s.

Kevin Meyers came from an Irish family, but was raised in England. In his early 20s, he moved to Belfast to cover the Troubles as a reporter and spent eight dissolute years in the city, drinking with both IRA and Loyalist paramilitaries, covering gun battles and bombings, watching friends die, and skirting death. Oh, and having lots of copiously detailed sex. It was the ‘70s.

The book is politically neutral. His sympathies are primarily with the dead, whether killed by Republicans or Loyalists, and his insistence on calling out bad behavior on both sides make this a work of moral clarity and sanity. It’s refreshing to read an account of the Troubles and have someone politely point out that perhaps death is tragic, no matter the cause.

Despite the frequent gore (he attended the funerals of 40 friends during his eight years in Belfast), the book manages to be quite funny. The author tries really, really hard to be witty, and for the most part succeeds. On nearly every page there’s a sentence that is fiendishly clever, droll, or barbed, and the closest stylistic comparison I think would be Christopher Hitchens (who wrote a blurb for the cover).

But occasionally the writing comes across as precocious. Early in the book, he mentions that he had difficulty making friends at University College Dublin, due to his English accent and supercilious manner. I looked up supercilious in the dictionary. It means: “behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others.” I thought, only a supercilious twit would use the word supercilious. Perhaps the British have a higher tolerance for this kind of stuff, but it sometimes came across as pretentious to my American sensibilities. Still, for the most part I thought this book was a work of art.

Note: I checked the author’s Wikipedia page after finishing the book and was distressed to learn that he lost his job as a writer for the Sunday Times and ruined his career, generally, for expressing opinions such as:

- children of single mothers are bastards, deserve no sympathy, and single mothers have babies for the express purpose of milking the government for a handout
- Aid to Africa merely encourages Africans to have more babies, and Africans are good for nothing anyway, contributing nothing to civilization
- the Holocaust never happened
- women don’t work as hard as men
- Jews benefit from nepotism in the world of publishing and writing

Ghastly stuff. These obnoxious rants nearly ruined it for me, which is a shame, because I really enjoyed Watching the Door. The author’s career is toast (mercifully), and none of these odious opinions crop up anywhere in the book, so I’ll evaluate it in isolation from the author’s later ideological detours. Watching the Door was great. Don’t read anything else he ever wrote.

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a while since I've done any reading on what is so euphemistically referred to as "The Troubles" and I don't think I've ever read anything substantive on that aspect of Irish history that was not partisan. A well-written, brutally straightforward account of the author's time as a half-assed journalist in Belfast through most of the 1970's. It's a reminder of the casual savagery, the everyday persistent viciousness of the conflict on all sides, including a relentless - and very intentional - cataloging of the names and stories of many, many victims.

[Steve Dyster · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read for anyone with an interest in the Troubles or the social history of Belfast in the nineteen-seventies. Mind, it's an intense and challenging story, reflecting the deep complexities of the murderous struggle between factions of Republicans, Loyalists, the RUC, the British Army, as well as the personal relationships within these. Add in the alcohol-ridden squalor of much of a city where industry was decaying and investment was unlikely, and you have streets as mean as you'll read about anywhere. Yet you also have generosity, hospitality, acts of unlikely kindness, and unusual friendships.

The author met, even got to know quite well, some of the leading paramilitary leaders. He was under no illusions about their business, though he was taken in by a couple, but found some good company. Others he knew were no more than bigoted thugs. What he portrays so well is the synergy between the bigotry of society and paramilitary; how one fed the other and the violence and mythology they created fanned their own flames. Indeed for the reader in 2020, one of the most interesting features of the book is how untruth becomes fact, myth becomes mantra. Fake news is nothing new, neither is the simple accusation of fairness.

The numerous sexual encounters which Myers had might detract for some, although this is very much, in my opinion, part of the story, part of the malaise and confusion he descends into. Sex, alcohol, friendships, enmities, the street on whisk he lived; all part of what made Belfast during the troubles such a nightmarish labyrinth. And in the labyrinth people made their lives and saw their children grow - as well as seeing their lives ripped apart and their children murdered.

There'll be some readers offended because Myers does not condemn those they think he should, nor celebrate their heroes. Open it with an open-mind. Yes, he judges; the Army, the RUC, the IRA (Official and Provisional), the UVF, UDA, UDR, the politicians, the individuals. He weighs them against the times and the circumstances. No simple moralising or political point scoring.

He paints a picture of what he saw, of the fear he smelt, the hatred, of being on the edge of death (as he was on several occasions), of the chance that keeps one person alive whilst another dies. Each page is impregnated with terror, and with humanity - for better and worse, generally worse.

Whilst he explains aspects of the Troubles, there is little analysis, other than of himself. A catalogue of drinking, killing, sex, killing, drinking, friendship, acquaintance, drinking, killing; I'll seek out historians works for analysis. in many ways, the absence of detailed explanation of the complexities serves to leave the reader much better informed of how deep and convoluted were the currents of Belfast life during the Troubles.

The book will also make valuable reading for those who want aggrandise themselves by wrecking the Good Friday and St. Andrew's Agreements that have brought about a still tenuous period of peace. As Andrew Marr wrote in his review, "This book stinks of the truth." Consider condemning some of the most generous, friendliest folk in the world to return to the life that Myers depicts so powerfully.

[Steve Smits · Rating 5 out of 5]

I spent two years in Northern Ireland from 1970-1972, the years this memoir begins. I was in Derry, not Belfast where most of the author's recollections take place. As an American, I was aware of the growing violence from some witnessed observations, including living in a flat near downtown that was bombed shortly after internment in the summer of 1971. As well, I closely followed newspaper accounts and had personal connections with many locals, including a direct witness to Bloody Sunday in January 1972..

As a journalist, Myers was closely connected leaders and followers on all sides in Belfast: both branches of the IRA (Official and Provos) and people in the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defense Regiment. He also had contacts with the police (the RUC) and the British army. He had first hand knowledge of the incredible brutality that played out over the eight years of his time there -- asassinations, wanton bombs that took many civilian casualties, and the sectarian hatred that extingusihed any sense of morality, including many random killings based solely on religious affiliation. His memoir reminds us of how the conflict moved far beyond political strife to bring out the darkest elements of inhuman sensibility.

Along with his reporting of people and events, he recounts vividly his sexual exploits as a young man. Some are amusing, but they do seem to stem in part from the affect of the tumultuous times on a young man.

Myers writes exceptionally well and, I understand, he make journalism his life's work.

[Geraldine Comiskey · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you read just one book about Northern Ireland, make it this one. Like a forensic pathologist dissecting a rotting corpse, Myers unflinchingly delves into the blood and guts of it, puts its cancerous, endemic corruption under the microscope and sheds the light of truth, innocence and goodness on it, both through the eyes of his youthful, naive self and with the benefit of hard-earned wisdom and maturity.
I read this just after re-reading M Scott Peck's "People of the Lie", and it strikes me that Myers's book is about the same subject: evil and the way it can corrupt the individual, the group and the community.
Anyone who has been exposed to evil will understand, because this book is about evil - in all its horrific, terrifying, insidious, corrosive, seductive, paralysing, tribal power. It is also the perfect example of how good people do Confession.
A beautiful book about ugliness incarnate.

[Senioreuge · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was passed on to me by a friend who has good critical political judgement. I thought I would learn from it: a different perspective on the life I lived during that period.
This did not happen. instead I very soon found myself in a place, due to the size of the authors ego, over-crowded with selfishness. It also seemed to very makey-uppy, full of "oirish" cartoon characters to fulfil all your baser prejudices.
If ever you want to learn about the Belfast of the late 60's/early 70's avoid this dismal self centred hedonistic nonsense. If however you have a penchant for believing that the Irish are nothing more than a population of drunken boorish men and women of loose morals, then by all means wallow in Myers sewer.

[Jay Hinman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Violent sectarian war between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland was totally baffling to me as a kid. I grew up as IRA and UDA partisans were blowing each other and everyone around them to bits in Northern Ireland, and, not knowing the ancient and impenetrable hatreds that self-perpetuated and multiplied over the centuries, it struck this American as colossally stupid. Two sets of Jesus-lovers killing each other ad nauseum and to no real end! Turns out that having these hatreds play themselves out in violent fashion right before your very eyes is no more illuminating, as journalist KEVIN MYERS' outstanding memoir from these times, "Watching The Door - Drinking Up, Getting Down and Cheating Death in 1970s Belfast", makes abundantly clear.

Sure, the Catholics of the time would tell you they had proximate cause - the presence of British troops in Northern Ireland - as would the Protestant defenders of the status quo, especially once the bombs really started exploding in the early 1970s. Myers, an Irishman brought up in England, came "back" to Belfast in 1971 as an exceptionally low-paid newspaper and magazine writer to document what he and just about everyone else thought would be a short set of over-and-done skirmishes. Yet Myers ended up becoming such a part of The Troubles themselves that he met everyone, drank with everyone, was threatened with death by just about everyone, and was one man among few who got this close and actually escaped with his life. His memoir is absolutely riveting. Myers lived a reckless existence, the sort of hard living that war correspondents through the years have worn on their sleeves with pride. He was an early 20s young male interested primarily in women and drink, and secondly and I think halfheartedly, in the vogue Leftist politics that at that time very much identified themselves with the IRA cause. But mostly women, drink and excitement of all stripes.

Myers' abundant self-effacing humor and sense of pacing really make this book. Quickly, after some harrowing and up-close views of death, including a British solider shot and killed in front of him, he has the pulse-quickening realization that he actually likes this line of work, and he retroactively documents the follies and heedlessness of his youth - untold amounts of drink, nameless sex with nameless girls, and a sickening amount of death, all rolled up into one big imperial pint glass of recklessness. Myers was barely even working, truth be told, and could have easily left Belfast at any time. Yet he bought a house, albeit one that lost half of its value very quickly after it became identified as being in a bomb- and killing-ridden section of town.

That was the thing that I learned from this book - just how hideously bad this war was. I knew there were senseless IRA incidents, but I didn't know just how many people were murdered in places like Belfast and Londonderry and Armaugh during the 1970s, and just how often they were murdered simply for walking down the street or for purportedly talking to the wrong person. Myers gives them all their names, names that otherwise would be forgotten to most historians, and does his best at each turn to humanize the needlessly dead and the impact of their deaths upon their families. At least he does this with the innocents; he also eviscerates the guilty and their stupidities with much wit and mocking, and in retrospects suffers absolutely none of the many appalling fools he comes across. My favorite part was when he described the Irish dockworkers who were upset that a Japanese company had bought a port from an Irish company, particularly one who dismissed the entire transaction with, "Fuck the Japanese. Them's all Chinamen anyway".

Yes, in many ways it's a growing-up story. We all have youths typically more colorful than our truly adult years, some of us more than others. Certainly Myers "grew up" fairly dramatically, formed by the searing traumas of his 20s. I was in Rome last month on vacation, where I read this book, and ran into some late-fifties Irish women in the Catacombs on a tour & asked one where she was from. "Belfast", she told me, less than 24 hours after I'd finished this book, which chronicled what was no doubt the horrific backdrop of her youth as well. Naturally I had to burble and sputter about this great book I'd read, and she proceeded to lay out the miseries that she, and what turned out to be her accompanying sister and cousin, had witnessed. A husband blown up here, a cousin shot there; a house firebombed next door here, a killing in front of their house there.

Then I told her that the writer's name was Kevin Myers. "Aye, Kevin Myers, oh boy, that's too bad, he's a right-wing nutter, he is". I learned that evening with some internet research that Myers, now a regular columnist for the Irish Independent, is indeed a bit more conservative than he was in his youth. Aren't we all, right? I read some of his columns, and they have all of the opinionated, humorous and learned bluster of this book - and then I liked him even more. Put it this way - if you appreciate Christopher Hitchens, who is the man who steered me to this book via a shout-out in his "HITCH-22", you'll love this similar Left-to-Right conversion story, which takes place in a backdrop considerably more dangerous & maddening than anything even the well-traveled Hitchens experienced in his own memoir.

[Ted Farrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This brutally frank account of the early years of the Troubles in Belfast is both appalling and compelling reading. The author, a young journalist, apparently indifferent to his own safety, was spectator to tragedies, to horrific events and awful cruelty and was often fortunate to escape unscathed. Against the backdrop of violence, his sex life, as described, suggests to this relatively innocent reader that elements of his story may have been embellished for whatever reason. It is nevertheless, a valuable memoir from those awful times.

[Alexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out pretty interesting, but devolved into a list of his sexual escapades by the end. I'm no prude, but didn't realize the book was more memoir than social commentary.

And one does wonder how exaggerated some of the book is. Not just referring to the sex, either. But I will admit that it was well written, and was fairly absorbed whenever I picked it up.

[Steven Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly, I am not an adherent to a lot of the views which Kevin espouses, esp in the last 10 years. So I was expecting little from this book but I was completely wrong. I dont think I have read a more honest account of a person's experiences in Northern Ireland and all done in a kind of matter of fact way.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eye-opening account of living in Belfast during the Troubles. I just really had no idea. As this was just one man's perspective, I now want to know more. Interesting to be reading this as Queen Elizabeth has passed away also.

[Mo Ruddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent memoir from an English journalist based in Belfast during the troubles.

[Tracy Hollen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Mark Suffern · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shocking stuff,as all books about Northern Ireland at this time are.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

A brutal, honest and no holds barred memoir of life as a journalist in the bloodstreaked streets of Belfast during the period of what is now known so euphemistically by us as "the Troubles". Myers has the prose of a hardnosed hack but is unflinching in his recording of the atrocities committed on all sides during the conflict, although I have to say one or two incidents in the book have caused my to raise my eyebrow in disbelief - bumping into a Brit army colonel he tangled decades afterwards in which he delivers the final putdown rings a little too pat for me. Still, sadly prescient reading and it is good to remember that those times were one part of my nation - and Irelands' - history that should never be forgotten, or repeated.

[Cate Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this book was interesting, I have a very hard time believing that Myers was present at every significant death of the Troubles. I also really did not care about the sex life of a down-at-the-heels journalist - all that stuff was so superfluous and made the story weaker. For instance, I do not for one second believe he had a three-way with a lesbian couple. Men, quit writing bullshit.

Anyway, I do think he did an exceptional job of capturing the mood and the terror of the period. The fear read as real. I don't regret the time I spent reading this book, but I definitely had to suspend disbelief more than once, which is something one shouldn't have to do in a book of non-fiction.

[Brendan Koerner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not typically big on memoirs of misspent youth, but this one got to me. Myers does a masterful job of recounting how his personal downward spiral mirrored that of 1970s Belfast, infusing the tale with liberal helpings of both wit and horror. The endless parade of senseless killings can be tough to take at times, but Myers' eloquent observations about the soul-deadening effects of the violence make up for the occasional monotony. And I'm not too big of a man to confess that I cried at the end.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely phenomenal. Hearing about the Troubles in non-fiction is one thing, but to hear it through the lens of someone who went it through was amazing. Myers was unbiased and honest, quirky, gallant and cowardly. He ran the gamut of emotions and experiences -- proving that all those things you've already read were true. Myers is able to make the story both personal and indifferent. I loved this book - I've reread it multiple times. Strongly recommend if you like history, Ireland, war or just a good coming-of-age story. An amazing, thrilling read.

[Kate Naughton]

Terrifying and horribly honest. I was just a wee bit too young to witness the worst of the troubles, thank-god, but Myers captures the delight in tribalism which I can recall all too well.

A few reviewers have accused Myers of relying on stereotypes but he doesn't. There many, many people, from all communities, in NI, who are, and still are, sadly, just as he portrays them.

The one exception is the crude, stupid caricature of the American woman in the later chapters.

[Yael · Rating 4 out of 5]

You think you have an idea of the terror, fear, dread, and incestuous violence of 1970s Belfast, but you really don't. I suspected it was worse than I could summon through my imagination, but I had no idea how, and in what ways. You never do, every war is different. This memoir is also valuable because of Myers' illustration of the impenetrability of that world to any outsider, no matter how long he might hang around. You'd be a fool to think you understand it. You can only take it in.

[David Whittlestone · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent introducion for me to this genre. It tells of a journalist's view of Belfast towards the start of the Troubles in the early 1970s. It is told with honesty and fairness, in a writing style that is easy and again honest but coarse and gritty and unbounded, and contrasts with the dishonesty of the participants. Puts a new light on an extended period of aggression and futility.

[Penny Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, haunting and very detailed.
I knew little of 'the troubles' before reading this very personal memoir of those times. My overarching view having read this book, is how petty, stupid and dangerous all involved were - and how difficult it must have been for ordinary folk to get on with their lives. No one comes out of it well and not many come out alive.

[Johan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting and readable account of the life of a journalist in Belfast in the 1970's. Lots of stuff about the killings and general mayhem that Belfast saw during the trouble, also quite a bit about Myers sexual exploits and personal life.

[Khalid · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides an intimate portrayal of the effect that the Northern Ireland conflict had on individual lives. The author provides brutal stories of killings that reflect what the society turned into and how warlords were running the lives of the citizens of Belfast.