Ballyscadan: Death and Reconciliation

by Jim Masson

Never believe what you read in books. The truth always lies deeper than the page you may be reading. After 25 years of bloody violence in a brutal struggle, with over 3000 dead, the Provisional IRA and the British government embarked on a deal in 1994 to create a path to peace and eventually to a united Ireland. A ceasefire was imminent. The world of intelligence was where the battle to end the Troubles was won… and some argued, lost, from the top down and bottom up. In the small fishing village of Ballyscadán in County Down through the dark years, like in many small communities across the North, the struggle continued. Back in the summer of 1994 Provo volunteers had work to do. Dedicated. Determined. Deadly. This is just a story, a fiction, based around the Troubles centered around this fishing village. A young man came to Northern Ireland from Scotland to meet his estranged father for the first time. He gets caught up instead in the Troubles full on and found that there was no way out… except one. Will there be a final reconciliation between Con and his father, or will there be a violent and deadly outcome adding to the statistics of the Troubles? A Peace settlement was eventually secured in April 1998 following the 1994 ceasefire through the Good Friday Agreement. Today, many fear the slide back into the dark days of the Troubles as a tenuous devolution teeters on as always on the brink of possible collapse.

219 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 20, 2020