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Colours: Ireland - From Bombs to Boom
Colours is more than just a memoir about the formative years of someone born in the epicenter of political and sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. McDonald time travels in two directions—first back to the dark days of Ulster's violent past; and second, he uses some of the key incidents of his boyhood and youth to compare the Ireland of then with the Ireland of the 21st century. It is a journey that takes him from the GPO in Dublin, a revered site in the history of Irish Republicanism where the 1916 Easter Rising was launched, to the sex shops and the swinging parties of post-modern hedonistic Dublin. Filled with football thugs, terrorists, madams, paedophile priests, abuse survivors, drug dealers, comic writers, and modern-day martyrs, Colours exposes Ireland in all its complexity and diversity, as seen through the eyes of a someone who has experienced firsthand an island and a nation undergoing revolutionary changes.
- GenresNonfiction
256 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2004
20 people want to read
About the author
Henry McDonald
20 books5 followersHenry Patrick McDonald was a Northern Irish journalist and author. He was a correspondent for The Guardian and Observer, and from 2021 was the political editor of The News Letter, one of Northern Ireland's national daily newspapers, based in Belfast.
He was born in a Catholic enclave of central Belfast in 1965, and was a student at St Malachy's College. He briefly attended Edinburgh University before gaining a degree from Queen's University Belfast.
In his youth, McDonald involved in the Workers' Party, a left-wing party that emerged from Sinn Féin in the early 1970s and was associated with the Official IRA. He travelled to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) with the youth wing of SFWP in the early 1980s.
After taking a journalism course at Dublin City University, McDonald began his professional writing career in 1989 at the Belfast newspaper The Irish News. He wrote extensively about the Troubles and related issues, with a particular focus on paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland, like the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). He wrote a book on the INLA, INLA – Deadly Divisions, which he co-authored with his cousin, Jack Holland. The book was first published in 1994.
McDonald also wrote on Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups and co-authored books on the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and UDA with Jim Cusack. He also wrote a biography of Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader David Trimble, a personal biography Colours: Ireland – From Bombs to Boom, and, in 2017, Martin McGuinness: A Life Remembered. He was, for a period, a security correspondent for the BBC in Belfast.
In 1997, McDonald became the Ireland correspondent for The Observer, and assumed the role for The Guardian in 2007. He was based out of the paper's London office from 2018 to 2020. He then returned to Belfast, where he wrote for The Sunday Times, and worked as the political editor of The News Letter, headquartered in Belfast.
McDonald's first novel, The Swinging Detective, was published in 2017, and his second, Two Souls, was published by Merrion Press in 2019. A third novel, called Thy Will Be Done, was forthcoming at the time of his death.
He was born in a Catholic enclave of central Belfast in 1965, and was a student at St Malachy's College. He briefly attended Edinburgh University before gaining a degree from Queen's University Belfast.
In his youth, McDonald involved in the Workers' Party, a left-wing party that emerged from Sinn Féin in the early 1970s and was associated with the Official IRA. He travelled to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) with the youth wing of SFWP in the early 1980s.
After taking a journalism course at Dublin City University, McDonald began his professional writing career in 1989 at the Belfast newspaper The Irish News. He wrote extensively about the Troubles and related issues, with a particular focus on paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland, like the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). He wrote a book on the INLA, INLA – Deadly Divisions, which he co-authored with his cousin, Jack Holland. The book was first published in 1994.
McDonald also wrote on Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups and co-authored books on the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and UDA with Jim Cusack. He also wrote a biography of Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader David Trimble, a personal biography Colours: Ireland – From Bombs to Boom, and, in 2017, Martin McGuinness: A Life Remembered. He was, for a period, a security correspondent for the BBC in Belfast.
In 1997, McDonald became the Ireland correspondent for The Observer, and assumed the role for The Guardian in 2007. He was based out of the paper's London office from 2018 to 2020. He then returned to Belfast, where he wrote for The Sunday Times, and worked as the political editor of The News Letter, headquartered in Belfast.
McDonald's first novel, The Swinging Detective, was published in 2017, and his second, Two Souls, was published by Merrion Press in 2019. A third novel, called Thy Will Be Done, was forthcoming at the time of his death.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 2, 2015
Fair play to Hen. I've no doubt it would be 5/5 if I was less ignorant of all the happenings during these times. I'll do a proper review soon.
December 18, 2014
McDonald is a newspaper journalist who grew up in The Markets neighborhood of Belfast. As a child, his household was a Republican (Offical IRA) and Socialist home with many (in)famous IRA figures in and out of the door. But McDonald's book is much more than a story of the Troubles. In 8 chapters and an epilogue (written for this updated edition). The absolutely best chapter is Chapter 2 Alternative Ulsters which tells the story of the punk movement from the last 70's through the 80's and later. The punk movement at its inception was truly non-sectarian. It created a space across Northern Ireland where youth could come together for the love of music, and actively protest sectarianism and prejudice. McDonald describes how the punks were taken over by racist sectarian Loyalist youth in the early 80's shattering the spirit that had existed. In this chapter and throughout the books, McDonald provides details that only an insider would know. He writes about the Republic as well as Northern Ireland providing analyses of topics such as immigrants (North and South), changing societal views of sex and sexuality, and criminal enterprises. In the chapter Sicily without the Sun, we discover after descriptions of mafia-like activity that has overrun not only Dublin, but the rest of the Republic, that Sicily without the Sun is actually West Belfast, the stronghold of Gerry Adam's Sinn Fein. After reading the chapter on economic shenanigans particularly in Dublin, I wanted to read more about the economic misdeeds that led to the devastation of the Irish economy. There is undoubtedly no love lost between McDonald and Sinn Fein, but he has the courage to tell the stories, others won't (such as the murder of Robert McCartney in 2005). McDonals provides an incisive view of the entire island, North and South that is a must-read for anyone who has an interest in Northern Ireland and the relationship between the North and the South.
August 21, 2020
I borrowed this book from a friend.
This book is a biographical take on the situation of Northern Ireland growing up; from bombs to football, to punk culture to sex shops, from Belfast to Dublin to Iraq. This book is a nice easy read, it's well structured and it flows well and it does provide a different perspective on the issues in Northern Ireland, not always focusing on the negatives at hand which is often easy to do. I found myself flying through this book and I enjoyed this narrative including those about Alternative Ulster movements.
This book is a biographical take on the situation of Northern Ireland growing up; from bombs to football, to punk culture to sex shops, from Belfast to Dublin to Iraq. This book is a nice easy read, it's well structured and it flows well and it does provide a different perspective on the issues in Northern Ireland, not always focusing on the negatives at hand which is often easy to do. I found myself flying through this book and I enjoyed this narrative including those about Alternative Ulster movements.
August 17, 2015
Some interesting insights from someone who grew up during the troubles. McDonald does very well at giving an honest and impartial account / view of growing up in Belfast, despite coming from a Republican household. It was interesting to read how the punk movement managed to unite both sides of the divide during the troubles, but, in contrast, to read that youths of a post peace agreement Ulster are more divided than ever. I found the economical aspects interesting, especially with regards to the South where high end tax evasion was rife. So much for the Euro being Ireland's downfall! The divisions in Ireland are more complex than religion and politics. An interesting read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews