What A Bloody Awful Country: Northern Ireland’s century of division

by Kevin Meagher

“For God’s sake, bring me a large Scotch. What a bloody awful country!” Home Secretary Reginald Maudling, returning from his first visit to Northern Ireland in 1970

As a long and bloody guerrilla war staggered to a close on the island of Ireland, Britain beat a retreat from all but a small portion of the country – and thus, in 1921, Northern Ireland was born.

That partition, says Kevin Meagher, has been an unmitigated disaster for Nationalists and Unionists alike. Following the fraught history of British rule in Ireland, a better future was there for the taking but was lost amid political paralysis, while the resulting fifty years of devolution succeeded only in creating a brooding sectarian stalemate that exploded into the Troubles.

In a stark but reasoned critique, Meagher traces the landmark events in Northern Ireland’s century of existence, exploring the missed signals, the turning points, the principled decisions that should have been taken, as well as the raw realpolitik of how Northern Ireland has been governed over the past 100 years.

Thoughtful and sometimes provocative, What a Bloody Awful Country reflects on how both Loyalists and Republicans might have played their cards differently and, ultimately, how the actions of successive British governments have amounted to a masterclass in failed statecraft.

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

324 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2022

Reviews

[Sean Shee · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Fundamentally, however, Northern Ireland was not built to endure. Over the next few years, that will become all too apparent.'

Great analysis of how the Northern Ireland was always a doomed project, how the Troubles came to be and how the Good Friday Agreement came to pass.
However, I think this book excels when analysing how brittle yet important the peace that the Good Friday Agreement brought is and what that peace looks like. Unflinching in its summary of the roles people and governments played.

A good book.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brisk, highly informative run-through of Northern Ireland’s 100 years of history, it filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge. I am old enough to remember much of the violence of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and the book highlights how jaundiced much of the reporting was in the UK at the time, even from the BBC – but the long history of discrimination wielded by the Stormont state between 1921 and 1969 was all news to me. The Good Friday Agreement does provide hope for other intractable conflicts around the world although one cannot guarantee that things will not flare up again, with perhaps a Dublin government having to deal with matters next time – the author is clear in his opinion that Britain might wish to wash its hands of it all. The book is heavily political and I found myself wanting a broader history that might comprise culture – the football team’s heroics in the 1982 World Cup, the establishment of the Titanic museum, the films of Neil Jordan and various televisual portrayals of the conflict - while the book is already out of date following the sensational arrest of Democratic Unionist leader Jeffery Donaldson and his wife in 2024, but as a nuts and bolts ‘basics’ this will be hard to beat.

[Matt O'Donnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are two types of successful books on Northern Ireland. The kind that deals with the major plot points and the kind that focus on the effect in the general public trying to carry on their lives.

When I was a kid, I disliked the parts of learning history that focused on what ordinary people living in a specific time period dealt with. Nah, give me the big arc of history drama. Here, much later in life, I'm an armchair expert in the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and it's impossible to be a fair observer or critic of that situation without considering the damage done to ordinary people who were bystanders (or, worse, victims) carried out by, ultimately, ordinary people. Luckily (?) for me, this is a book about how the British government repeatedly dropped the ball on the North. I loved Kevin's first book on how a united Ireland would be the inevitable result of Brexit, and this was a tremendous follow-up work. I'm eager to see what he does next.

[Senioreuge]

Its not very often that an author achieves his or hers set purpose, Meagher does and does so with great insight and understanding. In the introduction he tells the reader who the book is aimed at, in a sense he was a little narrow in his ambition: I know of plenty of people, politicians, commentators and journalists who could learn plenty from this work. This is a no holds barred assessment of the failure of successive British Governments to deal fairly and honestly with the deep seated divisions that they embedded in Ireland over the course of the last few hundred years. The particular emphasis is on the period since the formation of the entity "Northern Ireland", in which the author charts the purpose of the establishment of the 6 county statelet and how it continued without check or balance for 50 years until the bubble inevitably burst.

[John Mannering]

Great Insight into the "Irish Problem" and failures in past decisions

A thought provoking analysis of the 100 years of NI's existence. The failures on all sides to make the right choices to avoid the Troubles and lessons that must be learnt to avoid falling back into the abyss. A must read for anyone trying to understand where we are now and how Brexit is pressuring the hard fought peace. Never again should we allow the politics of hatred to lead us down the road to violence.

This book is easy to read and provides insight from an advisor to Tony Blair's Labour party. It is neutral in its stance with no political stance except the need for advancing a political solution and courage in those making the right choices for all citizens.

[Olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Truthfully could not finish this book. I made it about 25% of the way through it to chapter 4. I really enjoy learning about The Troubles, but struggled to digest this one. It was strictly fact based which was a part of the issue for me. I love history BUT in my opinion, the way it is written can be made more palatable for any categorization of reader preferences. There wasn’t any sort of journalistic flair to introduce the content. If you like an 100% fact-based account then this is a great option, otherwise I would stay away. I think everyone should have some exposure to the conflict in Ireland and N. Ireland.

[Senioreuge · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read particularly for those who think they know all there is to know about NI over the past century. I would especially recommend it to all the politicians both here in NI and GB who can only view NI's problems as beginning around the late 1960's. Meagher is quite accurate in his recognition of the many failed and ignored opportunities, by all concerned, over the course of the last century, particularly on the part of successive British Governments, that may have avoided the violence that was endemic here for the last 30years of the last century.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

While no single book can ever tell the full story of how and why The Troubles started and continued for 30 years, this is a pretty decent attempt at an overview of all the big names and events. It's also striking in that it is pretty clear on the political failures that took place, allowing things to spiral beyond the point of no return. This is a good starting point for people who are interested in the subject but not sure where to begin, and will give them a base line to work off. It's also well written and accessible, which is always a plus in non fiction books.

[50andsomething · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very readable account of the past 100 years of history of Northern Ireland. The concluding chapter reviews the missed opportunities and the stubborn intransigence that is such a part of the NI character. The tragedy of the situation now, exaggerated by Brexit, is that the indifference and ignorance of the English have created a situation that will continue to fester and rankles for many generations to come.