Belfast Diary: War as a Way of Life

by John Conroy

“For those puzzled by Northern Ireland, Belfast Diary offers a well-written, sympathetic and clear-eyed view” of life during the Troubles (New York Times Book Review)   In the late 1960s, the ongoing conflict between the Protestant unionists and Catholic nationalists of Northern Ireland—divided by their stance on the country’s constitutional position as part of the United Kingdom—escalated to new, terrifying heights. Chicago journalist John Conroy was there on the frontlines, living among the people most affected by it. In Belfast Diary, Conroy offers a street-level view of life in a Catholic Ghetto in West Belfast, painting vivid portraits of its citizens and the violence they faced during the bomb threats, murder, police brutality, and more.   Conroy’s recounting of this tumultuous moment in Northern Irish history has been hailed as the best explanation of the more than twenty-five-year conflict. Now with a new afterword, Belfast Diary conveys an understanding that is an essential prerequisite to the resolution of intractable problems around the world requires understanding ordinary people as well as leaders.

Genres: History, Ireland, Nonfiction, War, Politics, Memoir, Irish Literature

323 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 1987

Reviews

[Peter Colclasure · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book has a unique slant compared to other books I've read about the Troubles. It was written by an American journalist from Chicago who moved to Belfast for a few years in the early '80s. So it has an outsider's perspective, and takes time to explain elements of the conflict that would be obvious to someone from Northern Ireland but hazy to Americans.

The book touched on some interesting elements of the conflict that I hadn't read before, such as the spate of insurance fraud that accompanied the Troubles (burn down my pub and claim the IRA did it and collect a fat check from the UK government), or the teenage sport of joy-riding stolen cars through military checkpoints at the risk of getting shot. I learned just how dangerous plastic bullets are. They're about six inches long and weigh as much as a baseball and if one hits you in the head it kills you.

Of all the books I've read about the Troubles, this one came closest to a personal narrative, a street level view of the conflict. Other books I've read on this topic presented a broad overview, with plenty of history, dates, and names, but you don't get a sense of what it was really like in the trenches, so to speak. This book gives you that sense, though it was written by a journalist who adhered to a formal, objective style of newspaper writing. Even when the account is first person, it's still a little dry.

Towards the end of the book he describes a pair of nights when the IRA gunmen showed up at his door and took over the house. He and the other tenants were herded into the living room and guarded for several hours at gunpoint, while the IRA ran a wire out the back door into a warehouse that bordered the backyard and tried unsuccessfully to bomb a British patrol. The author describes how nervous he was the entire time, unable to read a newspaper or concentrate on the television, and yet the writing is oddly dispassionate and cold.

I think the greatest achievement of the book is capturing the climate of paranoia and suspicion in Belfast. It was toxic. If you were seen hanging out with members of the IRA you might be arrested by the RUC and beaten for information. If you were too chatty with soldiers at a checkpoint the IRA might suspect you're an informer. A rumor could prove fatal.

Let's say you're hanging out with a friend at a pub and he mentions that the IRA was hanging out on the corner the night before. A few nights later the police knock on his door and ask questions. Now maybe the timing of the police interview was just a coincidence. Or maybe this friend might convince himself that you're an informer and you're the reason he had to endure a shakedown from the police. Suspicion strained friendships. Trust was never absolute. Sometimes the RUC would arrest a suspect and threaten to tell the IRA that he was an informant unless he actually gave them information, because they knew the IRA might kill him if they thought he was an informant. It's like some bad plot from the Sopranos.

The Troubles are really confusing. It was a war that wasn't a war, so much as a hybrid of a terrorist campaign, a street riot, a police state, and a civil rights movement. It was violent and yet the body count after nearly three decades was barely more than September 11. It had two sides that were really six sides, and just getting the different factions clear in your head takes some effort.

I agree with the author that the historical injustice of partition is at the root of it all. Northern Ireland should never have been separated from the Republic. I don't agree with the strong arm tactics of the IRA, but it seems like their hand was forced by the callous and incompetent approach to Civil Rights in the '60s. The entire Unionist approach to government through the early days of the Troubles seemed premised on the notion that Catholics ought to be oppressed, second-class citizens. And the Unionists seemed bewildered when the Catholics refused to settle for that.

[John Vettese · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the points made early in this book is that the Ireland-Northern Ireland Protestant-Catholic thing is not really understood by most people. It's true...my understanding of the conflict (even after reading McCourt, mwah) was that Ireland was Catholic, Northern Ireland was Protestant, and the two didn't like each other. Not even close. Written by a sociologist / historian / journalist who spent several years living in a Belfast Catholic ghetto, War as A Way of Life explains how the conflict is hugely more complicated than all that, extending first to Catholics in Northern Ireland, and then both sides in the UK, explaining with great clarity who the hell the IRA is and what their beef is, and how they're only the most well-known of some dozen or so paramilitary orginaztions operating during what he constanly refers to as "the troubles." Conroy really tells how all these acronyms and vague proclimations really affected life at the ground level, giving the greatest insight I've ever read into one of the biggest cultural-political conflicts of our time.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Conroy lived in Belfast during the troubles. He was there as a journalist since he was going to write a story about it. He rented a room from a Catholic woman in the Catholic area of Belfast. He spoke to many different people about the situation in Northern Ireland. Towards the end of his stay the IRA took over the house he was living in several times. They were attempting to blow up a store near the house and were using the kitchen to set up the bomb. He goes into great detail about the men in prison participating in the hunger strikes. It is horrible that the Catholics did not have basic civil rights. They did not have access to jobs and some of them did not have adequate housing. However, that does not justify the actions of the IRA. The IRA did not always treat Catholic people well either. They regularly knee capped petty criminals who were Catholic to keep them in line. The previous book I read on the troubles was on the history of it. This book was good to read as well since it is a firsthand account by someone who lived there and experienced it.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

A finely observed and well written journalistic/anthropological/historical account of the troubles in Northern Ireland, particularly in Belfast and even more particularly in the Catholic ghetto of Clonard where the author lived in a boarding house on and off for a number of years while reporting his story.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book. I always wondered what started it all, so I appreciated the fact that the author explained the root of the troubles. In very basic terms, hundreds of years ago, England confiscated Irish lands in the North with the express purpose of bringing in Protestants to civilize the Catholic Irish. They called it the Irish Plantations. So the us against them started that long ago.

What boggled my mind most during my reading is how the Irish Catholics were actively discriminated against so profoundly. We’re talking government sanctioned discrimination. It also blew me away that the English media didn’t talk about it. There were actual censors who decided what would be printed in the news and shown on TV about what was going on in Northern Ireland. WHAT IN THE WORLD??? I can only equate it in my mind with the struggle for civil rights here in the US in the 60’s. Can you imagine not having heard about it on the evening news? Makes me disappointed in the “free world” for not banding together to call England out on their sponsorship of such a disgustingly biased system of government.

This book is a little dated (written in the 80’s) but it gives a very good overview of what it was like to actually live in Northern Ireland in the Catholic ghettos in the 1980’s. It’s the first book I’ve read on the topic & I’m looking forward to reading more.

[indie · Rating 3 out of 5]

an interesting, primarily historically-focused, account of life from the view of an outsider - an American journalist - residing in West Belfast during The Troubles!

some great quotes and an overall pretty succinct historical background, laid out in accessible language.

[Fionnuala · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being from Northern Ireland myself, I've often wondered how I can adequately explain the situation back home to people who have absolutely no idea. It's always been so complex, and many people don't have so much as a basic background knowledge -- hardly their fault, considering the facts have often been downplayed, suppressed, or outright ignored. The conflict in Northern Ireland has very often been dismissed as a real conflict, even though war correspondents and journalists who have reported from there have mentioned Belfast in the same breath as Sarajevo. The fact is that such a conflict happening on what is technically UK soil is a shameful thing, and shameful it should be, considering it's happening because of a whole host of manipulation, illegal activity, and pretty much every kind of shady government cover-up you could imagine (torture, death squads, funding terrorist activities, internment without trial, I could go on...). It's very difficult to get solid, clear information on a conflict that spans several generations, each decade adding to the convoluted mess of information that came before -- and it's especially difficult when you're not from there.

That's why this book is so good: it is a perfect what's-what. It's readable, it's simple, it threads in context and history with the wider narrative of what it's like to live there and why the situation is progressing or stalling in the way it is; it explains complicated or unbelievable concepts in a way that makes it easy to follow, even if you still can't understand. (I can't understand the logic behind half of it and I grew up there, so don't feel too bad about that.) Conroy is an outsider, but this helps in two major ways: he is an outsider, so he's better able to look at things objectively and weigh up the facts without getting too bogged down in personal history or bias, and he's also American, and therefore writes this book in a way that is accessible to Americans -- who, from my experience, are the people who both want to know more about the conflict and also struggle with finding any information that hasn't been manipulated or romanticised. This is a very accessible book for Americans, and I would highly recommend any American who's ever wondered about what's going on in Northern Ireland to read this. The misinformation and/or ignorance about the conflict has led to some unpleasant conversations between myself and well-meaning or misinformed Americans in the past -- and ignorance especially has led to some less well-meaning confrontations. This is definitely a book I'm going to recommend now, as I think it's easily accessible to those without even any knowledge at all, and it also makes it very clear just how serious this conflict was. It's also full of a lot of context and history that helps readers understand just how it got to this point, and wider Irish history in general.

I have no complaints about this book, and even as somebody who both grew up there and had a massive interest in the Troubles while doing so, I still found out facts and considered perspectives new to me. It's absolutely insane to think about my little country being the subject of a book like this -- I still can't believe all of this happened, and that I grew up in its shadow. But if it did have to happen, then at least there's books like this to help us make sense of it.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beginning February 2019, I had the opportunity to spend 3 months in Ireland. Since then I have read quite a few books on The Troubles, and this is one of the best.
John Conroy focuses on how The Troubles affected ordinary people, primarily Catholics. He provides a ground-level view that is fascinating.
Recommended!

[Alice Chau-Ginguene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learnt about this book through a new article about the day to day life in Belfast. I ordered this book immediately as my first trip to Belfast at the time sparked my interest to learn more about the conflict. Amazing book with incredible insight. Highly recommend anyone who is interested in Northern Ireland, Irish history, or human behaviour in conflicts, to read this book.

[Stefanie Lozinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this one. I went into it knowing very little about the Troubles, and I liked that the author didn’t seem to assume much prior knowledge from the reader. I loved that the focus of the book was on the big picture as well as the day to day nature of life in a Catholic ghetto.

[Addie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting to read an on-the-ground perspective of life in the North of Ireland from before the Good Friday Agreement.

[Tiarnán · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful and evocative account of daily life in the Catholic ghettoes of West Belfast during and after the Hunger Strikes.

[Cassie Dishman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book when I read it in college and decided to see if it holds up a decade later. It does. Absolutely heart wrenching and moving for a book that is trying desperately to just spit facts.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sound of gunfire, off in the distance,
I'm getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstone, lived in a ghetto,
I've lived all over this town
--The Talking Heads - Life During Wartime

Conroy is American journalist who had a sense that The Troubles, the ongoing violence in North Ireland, was being woefully misreported. He got a grant to spend a year in Belfast, researching just one story. He wound up in a boarding house in Clonard run by Mrs. Barbour, where he experienced 1980 and 1981 from the Catholic perspective.

Conroy's story is one of tension and life under occupation. At this point, a decade into the Troubles and a half century into partition, violence in Belfast was ritualized, professional, but also frighteningly random. The Provos (Provisional IRA) took aimed shots, mostly at the British Army and the police. The counter-force of police sweeps was equally arbitrary, seizing local men on flimsy pretexts. Violence between the Catholic and Protestant communities was mostly ritualized into Marching Season and schoolyard beatings. The extreme segregation of Belfast prevented more frequent encounters, though both sides feared a common holocaust of mass violence, a repeat of the riots which had burned out Bombay street a decade prior. Low level street crime was omnipresent among youths who had no opportunities for legitimate advancement, and were mostly sealed off from the tightly compartmentalized world of IRA operations. Muggings and robberies were omnipresent. The Catholic community distrusted the Protestant police on matters of ordinary law and order, and so the IRA stepped up with rough vigilante justice, kneecapping boys who were particularly troublesome. Belfast was surprisingly livable for a city at war, except when it wasn't. Conroy was held at gunpoint by both sides, and the IRA repeatedly occupied the boarding house to use as a trigger point for a roadside bomb. Even in the drama of the hunger strike by Bobby Sands and nine other Irish martyrs, Belfast mostly gets by.

With present eyesm what is striking about Belfast in the Troubles is how well it set the pattern for the War on Terror and the militarization of domestic policing. Decades before the Patriot Act, the British had their own special laws and courts for dealing with IRA suspects. Twenty foot walls blocked neighborhoods of opposing sects in Belfast before similar barrier went up in Baghdad. And for all the bloodshed, the attitude in London was one of imperial neglect. Of course, Northern Ireland was a vital part of the United Kingdom, but god forbid Britain give civil rights to the entire population, enforce laws on the Protestants' paramilitary groups, or do anything to improve the material conditions of the people of Belfast. Instead, regiments would rotate through, the war would go on, and nothing would change. Because the only thing worse than committing to an unjust and unworkable policy is admitting that it failed.

If you weren't in one of the ghettos, Belfast could be a prosperous, successful, safe, international city. But the imperial border and the so-called 'barbarians' are right there, a few streets away rather than on the other side of the world. As Conroy puts it, the most dangerous wall is the one that runs through the heart, the wall that teaches the next generation who to hate, and who not to care about.

[John Dizon · Rating 5 out of 5]

It may be a blast from the past but it hurts just the same. John Conroy's Belfast Diaries takes us back to the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the 70's, reminding us of how it all went ballistic in 1972 on Bloody Sunday, and hit its peak during the hunger strike of 1981. Most of the struggle has been romanticized in countless books and movies (including my own Tiara), but Conroy's account details the needless suffering of the lower-class Irishmen caught in the crossfire with no place or means of escape.

Conroy, a Chicago journalist, was awarded a year's salary by the Alicia Patterson Foundation to document a first-hand report of the Troubles in Ulster. He rented a room in the Clonard district on the West Side from Bridgit Barbour and lived alongside the natives, a time during which the term 'harrowing' would be almost a laughable adjective. He was held at gunpoint by Irish Republican Army gunmen and British Army soldiers numerous times, held captive in his apartment during an attempted bombing, and heard dozens of stories of people in the neighborhood who were beaten, shot, tortured and killed by loyalists and Republicans alike. He endured a living hell, but the difference between him and the citizens of Belfast was that he was able to leave rather than spend an entire lifetime there.

How times have changed. We read about the dark side of Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Maiden who stood by Ronnie Reagan's side during his dismantling of the USSR. In return, America was forced to overlook some of the worst human rights violations since WWII. Although it came short of the genocide in Bosnia, the suspension of legal rights for two decades and the government collusion with loyalist death squads was on a level with Latin American dictatorships. The New World Order is tracking down Nazi war criminals and bringing Serbian leaders to trial to this very day, but the perpetrators of Bloody Sunday and every other military action in every Catholic neighborhood has been conveniently laid to rest.

Conroy's in-depth narrative includes numerous vignettes and interviews with women, children, the elderly, and any of his neighbors who had a story to tell about murder and mayhem as casually as people in the USA recall a car accident they had witnessed. We look at the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and Sandy and rejoice in how the global community joined to relieve the suffering of the victims. Over two decades in Northern Ireland, that same community merely looked away in embarrassment and shame.

Thankfully for Ulster, the Good Friday Agreement restored a fragile peace, and with our New World Order, the British Empire will never be allowed to commit the same crimes again---or will they? Lest we forget, Belfast Diaries is a reminder of the atrocities that can happen in our own back yard.

[Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute powerful read. And I thought I had it bad as a Catholic at a Baptist High School! The Catholics in Northern Ireland couldn't get hired for 20 years. They were shot at every night., marched against and murdered on a daily basis. I thought The Troubles were bad for Catholics but this shed an entire new light on it. In America the IRA is a dirty name but they didn't commit even half the murders of their counterparts, including the English government.

This was a disturbing read but well worth The Troubles (pun intended!)

Belfast Diary....Five stars.

[lettisha ♥ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely one of the better books that I’ve read for one of my classes. It gives a good picture of what the Irish troubles were REALLY like, and well, I honestly had no idea. The thing I liked about this book is that there were stories in there from the author about people who lived there and his experiences there. Highly recommend if you’re wanting to know more about the troubles.

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly this book caught me during a nasty reading slump which led me to take a month to finish it.

However, I learned a pretty nuanced view of the Troubles with this book, especially as they were still ongoing when this was written. Conroy, an American from Chicago, was on the frontlines in Belfast and elsewhere for a couple of years in the late 1970’s-early 80’s. Some of what I read in this book was truly shocking, and really goes to show the impact media companies and governments can have in highlighting, or in this case diminishing, certain stories and conflicts. Few in the US speak of this conflict today it seems. The brutality and simple lack of humanity on both sides was eye opening, but the overall evilness of the British government was apparent in this conflict from day one. The fact that NI is essentially a British colony with issues still unresolved in 2024 is wild, even though the situation is far from black and white as the book highlights countless times.

The author wasn’t hopeful when he wrote this book that things would turn out for the better, and although they have in some ways since 1994, especially the lack of consistent killings, nearly every unsolved issue is still present, and even more pronounced since Brexit. This is truly an area to watch in the next few years.

I would recommend this book for an insight into the Troubles as they were happening with a pretty objective observer. The writing felt like a long article vs. a book, which made it not the easiest to trudge through. I felt a little disconnected at times, but it was informative. More of a ~3.8.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Belfast Diary: War as a Way of Life, American journalist John Conroy has written a short yet compelling narrative of the "troubles" in Northern Ireland in the 70's and 80's. It's made even better by the fact that he tells it from the viewpoint of a man on the spot, in the middle of the neighborhoods most involved and affected. When he went to Belfast, Conroy didn't intend to wind up in the middle of anarchy but he decided to rent a room in a boardinghouse run by Bridgit Barbour in the working class Catholic neighborhood of Clonard which abets Shankill, the equivalent for Protestants. Here, over a period of years, he found himself questioned, detained, stopped with a gun pointed to his head, blown up in his home, and held at gunpoint by the provisional IRA when the used his landlady's (against her will) house to stage a bombing. He had similar run-ins with the Protestant forces.

Conroy has the good sense to start this book with a few pages detailing the history of Ireland and Northern Ireland so readers unfamiliar with the situation can have some idea of how this all came to be. Certainly, nothing else about it is understandable. His book shows what happens when people refuse to understand each other or give up inherited hatreds and prejudices. This is not to say that there isn't some logic operating here. The Catholics are discriminated against by both the English occupiers and the Protestant North. The Protestants sincerely feel beleaguered by Catholics surrounding them and fear the loss of their identity and advantages. Unfortunately, it all resulted in endless killing and destruction and the devastation of communities. Conroy's writings show life as it has to be lived by those directly on the ground in both communities and, as he points out, shows what people can get used to. It's a story that still has no end and no justice. Things are quiet now but, sadly, it won't stay that way.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of what I have read about the Troubles gives you the big picture: the politics (obviously), the key players and the big events. This detailed the everyday lives of the people of Belfast and how the Troubles affected them. Children skipping school because, why bother, there won't be any jobs for them upon graduation. Young adults risking their lives to steal cars and potentially getting shot by the police in the process. Death had become an ordinary part of life and they'd continue doing it despite a friend getting killed during their "adventure." Individual stories of the cringeworthy but common practice of kneecapping. One of my favorite parts was the authors description of the atmosphere in the Catholic communities leading up to the death of Bobby Sands. This is a must read for anyone interested in the Troubles because if offers an entirely different angle with the day-to-day lives of those caught in the middle of this tragic time in Northern Ireland.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conroy's book looks at the Troubles of Northern Ireland during the 70s and 80s. Conroy was an American journalist who went to Belfast to cover the conflict. He sprinkles the book with important political history, so that the reader can better understand the conflict, but also includes his own personal experiences of living life in a Belfast ghetto as a foreign journalist.

In his personal experience, Conroy does an excellent job of portraying day-to-day life in the ghettos of West Belfast: living in fear of your safety, but also becoming so accustomed to shootings, riots, and bombings, that it almost seemed a normal part of life. Conroy also brilliantly portrays how he, an outsider, eventually became accustomed to this Northern Irish way of thinking: an odd mixture of fear and complacency.

It's a great book, and I would recommend it!

[Michael Christensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be a very good portrayal of the Troubles. Really good insight due to the years the author spent living in the Belfast ghetto and getting to know many of the players. I especially appreciated the attempt to drill down to some of the underlying causes. Giving out money (on the dole) and housing doesn’t provide self respect or “worth” to someone unemployed for decades and/or generations. I especially appreciated the the portrayal of PM Margaret Thatcher and her responsibility in allowing the hunger strikes to continue. Being from the US, I was never exposed to her culpability in the North Ireland issues. Well written and worth the time.

[Tracie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was looking for an education on the conflict in Northern Ireland and I certainly got it. We were never taught anything about this in American schools, certainly not in World History class. My son also has no recollection of learning anything about this during his years in high school 2009-2013. I learned so much from this book, but it was so much information I am fried right now. It definitely makes me want to learn more and to read other books on the topic from various perspectives. Again, my brain is fried from all this "new" information!

[Acenith Claassen · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you need shock and awe, read this book. I’m a second generation American. My grandmother was born and raised in Belfast. Never was it talked about, how bad things truly are there. All I knew growing up is that Protestants are not to be trusted and the Queen + all British are bad.

The light this book sheds is like nothing else I’ve read about “the troubles”.

Wow!

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn’t a book to provide a comprehensive and complete view of the conflict in Northern Ireland (although it does provide some context). It does however provide a balanced and personal view of the conflict based on the authors experiences in Belfast in the 1980’s. Belfast Diary is well written and worth a read, but not the best place to start if you are trying to understand the “troubles”.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Educational and Eye Opening

I had only surface knowledge of the Troubles, as the author states, only knew about the bombings etc... I found the book interesting and we'll written, although at times it was confusing to sort out the different groups on each side. Made me want to research current day status & follow more closely!

[Courtney Simpson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found myself quickly losing interest in this book. Everything seemed so heavily weighed down with references and I would lose track of what the author had even been talking about in the first place. I was hoping to read more about his experiences.

[Jordan Silver · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good read for anyone interested in the history and dynamics in Northern Ireland. Conroy investigates what it is like to live in a country divided by Protestants and Catholics, and the danger that it comes with.

[Po · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this right before visiting Belfast for the first time. Excellent book. Highly readable while providing meaningful insight and context on the Troubles.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting street-level perspective of this history