May the Lord in His Mercy Be Kind to Belfast

by Tony Parker

For twenty years the situation in Northern Ireland has been incompletely and often inaccurately reported by the press. Few people understand that in one part of the United Kingdom there exists a society where what matters most is religious origin and affiliation; still fewer empathize with the deep-rooted passions aroused by this. Tony Parker spent five months in the heart of Belfast talking to the people who make up this riven and self-destructive society. He interviewed priests and politicians, schoolchildren and students, bus drivers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, shop assistants, community workers, single mothers, soldiers, and police. He earned the trust of prisoners, their parents and children, and, perhaps most remarkably of all, Catholic and Protestant extremists implacably committed to violence as their means of expression. As Mary Loudon wrote in the Sunday Telegraph, "Tony Parker is an interviewer with an extraordinary capacity to filter what people say to him without turning their words his color." Through him the voices of the people of Belfast are heard for the first time, and the effect is devastating.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ireland, Politics, Journalism, Adult, Religion

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Tony Parker (25 June 1923 – 3 October 1996) was an oral historian whose work was dedicated to giving a voice to British and American society's most marginalised figures, from single mothers to lighthouse keepers to criminals, including murderers.

Born in Stockport, Cheshire, Parker was a conscientious objector during World War II, and directed to work in a coal mine. He moved to London and worked as a publisher's representative at Odhams Press. He campaigned against capital punishment and became very interested in prisons and their occupants, eventually focussing on the experiences of prisoners after release.

Tony Parker died in Westleton, Suffolk, having just completed his study of his American counterpart Studs Terkel.

Reviews

[Emer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book alone inspired my entire honours dissertation and reconnected me with my love of the intricate interpersonal politics that come with being Northern Irish. A true deep dive into the nearly unexplainable subtleties of the political divide, from a refreshingly curious and unbiased outside perspective.
This book feels to me like a pocket guide or bible (religiously charged language probably appropriate here) to be pulled out of a back pocket and referenced on a near daily basis. I felt like this investigation into the small nuances that make all the difference gave me all the language and tools to explain Northern Ireland's unique atmosphere like I had never fully been able to before.
Originally this book was shown to me by my father - Belfast born, bred, worked and retired - only as the chapter which gives the headlines on ongoing violence over the course of three weeks. A snapshot of the regularity and relative normality of these things occurring, which my dad was using to illustrate some point he was making at dinner, But the poignancy of informational clarity was something I hadn't experienced before in writing on Northern Ireland, and I hooked from the outset.
I own three copies, it is maybe my favourite book ever.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Famous writers who say it's the best book they have read about Northern Ireland are probably right. It's slightly inappropriate for me to offer that sort of a comment since it's the only book I have read about Northern Ireland. But it's hard to imagine what could surpass it. One could find more information, detail, erudition and poetry elsewhere, but this collection of conversation-cum-monologues is the real deal. Worthies, professors, literary critics et al who praise Tony Parker's skill as an interviewer and editor are absolutely right. Many voices - some I could never have imagined hearing, some I could scarcely bear to hear - speak from these pages with integrity, passion and colour, and sometimes with an aching drabness more powerful than any colour. It seems as though they speak directly, but something hard-to-pin-down (that has left only traces in the printed word) yet infinitely valuable is added through interaction with the man with the microphone. The particular arrangement and ordering of the voices works extremely well, and the opening chapters about Parker's own eyes being opened to this familiar-but-strange place is helpful for the uninitiated.

I often read books that make me laugh and sometimes read books that make me cry (...getting a bit emotional in my old age, perhaps). There have been books that make me tremble with a kind of dread, a barely-containable heart-fluttering agitation and thirst for what might be coming (...yes, definitely hormones, if not alcohol). Occasionally I even read a book that thoroughly shakes my prejudices. Very rarely do I read a book that makes me tremble, sit up as if stung, laugh and weep all at once. And a book about what other people have done that makes me feel shame (as a child of late-modern liberal Britain and Jeremiah 31:29 let me assure you that I REALLY struggle with certain people's conceptions of identity and corporate responsibility) has to be a pretty special one.

[John Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's essentially a fully fledged catalogue of entries by anyone and everyone tangled up in the conflict surrounding the troubles. For Tony Parker to do this is very much choosing the high road, but the reader is rewarded with a completely unbiased snapshot of the deeply personal, social, political, religious and cultural differences that stand between these people.

I don't remember any conversation with any of the people that Tony spoke to being at all uninteresting. In fact, a lot of the topics and a lot of the words that were strung together were hugely impactful and provoking.

As I have done so myself, it's now a lot safer and easier to live in Belfast, which comes as a surprise to a lot of people I speak to here in England. It's a very sad situation, and to read this book and hear about the very real impact that the conflict has had on both adults and children of all backgrounds makes me ashamed to identify in any way with this country.

[Ari · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book looks at the conflict in Northern Ireland from every perspective, from unrepentant terrorists to everyday people and lets them tell their stories. It includes no history, makes no judgments, and takes no sides.
Broadly speaking, it's a story about how poor policies and a bad economic future can cause despair and make a bad situation worse.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

An entire book dedicated to interviewing people whose lives had been torn apart by the Troubles in Northern Ireland. A perfect light read for winter break!

[Mab · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really really good. I've now read two of Tony Parker's books and they've both been really astonishing - his ability to present people's words in a way which is illuminating without giving them his own spin or colour is really incredible. This is a deeply absorbing book, fascinating at every moment, and there were times where I had to just put the book down and breathe because of an incredibly sharp moment of insight or heartbreak.

[Joann Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Heart stopping

[Lisa of Hopewell]

I learned of this book here: https://pluckedfromthestacks.wordpres...

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it years ago, still awesome.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve given away most of my favourite books and this is one of them. Spot on

[Kristian Gunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating read covering the full spectrum of opinion. 30 years old and 25 years after the Good Friday agreement, yet still hugely insightful, educational and relevant.

[Mike Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is simply a series of interviews with people in Belfast during the height of the conflict between the Provisional IRA and the pro-British forces in Northern Ireland. Parker interviews soldiers, civilians, and commanders in that conflict, and lets them tell their own story in their own words. While that conflict is over, thankfully, the basic lessons learned can be applied to any country where neighbors kill each other over political differences.

[Julie H. Ernstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

More good reading on 20th-century life in Northern Ireland, Belfast in particular.

[Las · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book many many years ago, and I remember the feelings and emotions when I finished it. It's still on my very limited bookshelf and definitely deserves to be read again!