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Critique des fantômes de Belfast, partie IV
Partie I http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/…
Partie II http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/…
Partie III http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/…
Les troubles, suite
(voir spoiler)
Casualties, continued
(view spoiler)
In memoriam, continued
(view spoiler)
Corporals killings 19 Mar 88 (2 killed by PIRA at funeral) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporal…
Lisburn van bombing 15 June 88 (6 British Army
(masquer le spoiler)]
Livres sur les troubles
(voir spoiler)
Note that I ruled out any book that was published before the modern Troubles began in the late ‘60s. There are many books, both fiction and non-fiction, which deal with or are set in earlier periods of Irish history, particularly the era before and after the Irish War of Independence (1919-21) and the Irish Civil War (1922-23). These conflicts finally resulted in the division of Ireland into the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, a division which still exists in the present, and a division responsible for the modern Troubles era.
The starting list of books was assembled from lists on Amazon, Goodreads, and Wikipedia, plus lists at the following sites: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/… and
http://www.theworkersrepublic.com/bes…
(The Goodreads list contained a lot of books that were disqualified because they were not concerned with the modern Troubles era.)
Each of the Top 10 lists is ordered by year of publication. Links to Wiki articles on the book are given where they exist.
Top 10 Non-fiction books on The Troubles
Note that writing non-fiction about the Troubles is not the safest occupation in the world.
1973 War and an Irish Town, Eamonn Mccann
1987 Ten Men Dead, David Beresford
1995 Rebel Hearts , Kevin Toolis
1995 Belfast Diary: War as a Way of Life , John Conroy
1997 Killing Rage , Eamonn Collins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_… ) Author was murdered in 1999 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eamonn_C… )
1997 Fifty Dead Men Walking: The terrifying Story of a Secret Agent Inside the IRA , Martin McGartland. Author was abducted but escaped in 1991, was later shot six times at his home in 1999 but survived. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_M… )
1999 Bandit Country: the IRA and South Armagh , Toby Harnden
1999 The Shankill Butchers , Martin Dillon (stay away if you have a weak stomach) Author received death threats from a number of groups, emigrated to the U.S.. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_D… )
2006 Watching the Door , Kevin Myers
2010 Voices From the Grave , Ed Moloney
Bonus Picks
1999 Lost Lives , David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris Thornton
This book is not light reading. Library Journal describes it as “a 1600 page obituary”, and compares it to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. The full title is Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles. It is an exhaustively researched book whose authors spent seven years examining and documenting each of the 3638 deaths that were directly caused by the Troubles in the years 1966 to 2000. For a good review, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2000/…
2012 A Political History of the Two Irelands , Brian M. Walker. Recommended to me by GR friend Gerard. Written by his favorite politics lecturer at Queen’s College.
Special – Books on the IRA
I’ve separated these out from the other non-fiction. Not only would they have taken up too much of the list, but some could have reputations as being biased towards one side or the other. Here, without comment, are four books, each of which is more of a general work on the IRA than any of the books in the Top 10 list.
1970 The IRA , Tim Pat Coogan (nine editions since first published)
1997 Provos: The IRA and Sinn Fein , Peter Taylor
2002 A Secret History of the IRA , Ed Moloney (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Secret… )
2003 Armed Struggle – The History of the IRA , Richard English
Top 10 Fiction books on The Troubles
1975 Harry’s Game , Gerald Seymour
1983 Cal , Bernard MacLaverty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cal_(novel) )
1988 Watchman , Ian Rankin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchman… )
1994 House of Splendid Isolation , Edna O’Brien
1995 Divorcing Jack , Colin Bateman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divorcin… )
1996 Eureka Street , Robert McLiam Wilson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M… – this author article is mainly about the book)
1996 Drink With the Devil , “Jack Higgins” (“Sean Dillon”)
1999 The Bombmaker , Stephen Leather
1999 The Marching Season , Daniel Silva (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marc… )
2012 The Cold Cold Ground , Adrian McKinty
Bonus Pick
1987 Patriot Games , Tom Clancy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_… )
This is a bonus pick because it is so much more famous than any of the other books on the list, that it seems to be in a category by itself.
(hide spoiler)]
Musique des troubles
(voir spoiler)
The first song is by Nanci Griffith. It’s not really about the Troubles, but like Neville’s novel, the Troubles are the backstory to at least the first part of the song – where I first heard the words “Falls Road”. The song appeared on the album Dust Bowl Symphony. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9lUG4…
The next song is by a Canadian folk singer, Stan Rogers, who died tragically in 1983. I was introduced to this music by a co-worker a few years ago (of Irish descent by the way). This was one of his favorite songs on the posthumous album From Fresh Water. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwld86…
There’s even a Wiki article on the song. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Rogers and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hous…
Finally, the number 3 song (biggest pop hit) from a list at http://www.stylusmagazine.com/article…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM4vbl… … powerful
(hide spoiler)]
(masquer le spoiler)]
Ce dernier spoiler est encore une fois principalement destiné aux personnes qui ne connaissent pas Belfast et l’Irlande du Nord. Cela peut aider ces lecteurs à se repérer géographiquement dans le roman.
Lieux dans le roman
(voir spoiler)
Belfast locations
(view spoiler)
The following map links have already been given, but are placed here again for convenience.
http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/i…
http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/i…
Several roads mentioned throughout the novel are shown on the map below. The M2 & M3 (blue) are in the upper right hand corner. The road drawn in red between 1 and 6 is where the B38 begins being called Springfield Road, which continues (green) to the SW as the A55, and ends where the A55 becomes the Monagh By Pass. Shankill Road (B39, yellow) is above the red portion of Springfield. Falls Road (the A501, orange) starts where Divis Street ends, winds down to the Milltown Cemetery, then turns south (red) and ends at A55. Lisburn Road (A1, orange) begins at the lower end of the B23 (yellow – University Road, then Malone Road) and continues down to the A55, south of which it become Upper Lisburn Road. Ormeau Road (A24) is shown in green, cutting across the red rectangle and over the river. All of the roads mentioned here (even the M2 and M3) have their own articles in Wiki.
By the way, whenever “lower” is used in describing a road in Belfast, it means lower in elevation, that is, closer to the harbor (and to the city center). So that end of the road will likely be “higher” on the map than the other end.
larger view:https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-mY…
Key
1. “ Fegan’s small terraced house on Calcutta Street” (chapter 1) (off the Springfield Road, p 51) I can’t find a Calcutta Street in Belfast, but there are a couple streets in the indicated area with Indian associations.
2. “… the elevated motorway behind, where the M3 became the M2. In front of them, the River Lagan flowed into Belfast Lough.” (chapter 2) The docks where Gerry gets rid of his first ghost.
and
2A. “ The lights of the Odyssey complex shimmered across the water” (same) The Odyssey complex across the river from the dock area.
3. “ the City Airport, now named after the great George Best, the footballer who destroyed himself with alcohol.” (same) Sorry, the “3” got cut off from the map image. It should be just to the right of the upper right hand corner.
4. “ Lisburn Road Police Station” (chapter 4 – 26)
5. “ at his mother’s terraced house on Fallswater Parade … just off the lower end of the Falls Road” (chapter 8 – 45) There’s no Fallswater Parade on the maps I’ve seen, but there is a Fallswater Street (and Avenue) in the place indicated.
6. “… the apex between Springfield Road and the Falls, where his mother’s old house stood” (chapter 8 – 45) This is somewhat confusing. 5 and 6 seem to be different locations for his mother’s house. Either they should be at the same location, or else he’s implying that his mother lived in two different places.
(marked on map) “ They came from all over Belfast: Andersonstown, Poleglass, Turf Lodge …” (chapter 8 – 45)
(not marked on map) “ … and some from the Republican enclaves in the north of the city and the Lower Ormeau” (chapter 8 – 45) The Lower Ormeau is in South Belfast, the main Republican area of the Ormeau Road. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ormeau_R…
7. “ the Christian Brothers School” (chapter 8 – 47) There may be another such school, this one is about a mile and a half down Falls Road (across the A55) from 5 where Gerry presumably was raised.
8. “ Black Mountain loomed over the graveyard” (chapter 13 – 79) The graveyard referred to is certainly the Milltown Cemetery, the main Catholic cemetery in Belfast, just off the Falls Road (although it’s not named in the novel). I’ve drawn the outlines of the graveyard on the map. Black Mountain is also indicated near the top of the map.
The red rectangle shown on the map is the area shown in the next map. This is fairly coincident with the Botanic ward of the city, and is centered on Queen’s University.
larger view:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VX…
Key
9. “ They’d organized a flat in the Holylands … Palestine Street, Jerusalem Street, Damascus Street “ (chapter 14 – 90)
10. “ Queen’s University … at the bottom of the Malone Road ” (chapter 14 – 90)
11. “ a house on University Street, just off Botanic Avenue ” (chapter 14 – 90)
12. “ a flat off the Lisburn Road, on Eglantine Avenue ” (chapter 15 – 101)
(marked on map) “ They walked in silence to the Malone Road, and turned north towards Queen’s University.” (chapter 19 – 119)
13. “ the city Hospital on the Lisburn Road ” (chapter 26 – 159)
The Belfast Hills looming over the Milltown cemetery
Belfast looking east from the Divis/Black Mountain trail, Samson and Goliath in the background
(hide spoiler)]
Autres emplacements
(voir spoiler)
Two counties of Ireland are shown, Louth and Monaghan, plus five of the six counties of Northern Ireland. The westernmost county, Fermanagh, is southwest of County Tyrone.
Key
A. “the bogs near Dungannon” (chapter 1) Dungannon is a medium sized town quite a ways west of Belfast. The body of one of Gerry’s victims was disposed of in the bogs.
B. “The port town of Dundalk would be bypassed altogether, along with the Player’s Inn.” (chapter 3) Dundalk is situated where the Castletown River flows into Dundalk Bay. It’s about 50 miles from both Belfast and Dublin.
C. “a housing estate on the edge of Lurgan” (chapter 4) Lurgan is a town south-west of Belfast.
D. “Armagh. There’s a car park by a chapel, opposite the council buildings.” (chapter 12)
E. “across the border, to the forests and lakes around Castleblaney” (chapter 13) Castleblaney is north-west of Dundalk, in Ireland, near the border with Northern Ireland.
F. “Portcarrick” (chapter 31 – 193-5), “up the Antrim coast” (p. 219). Portcarrick appears to be a fictional place. There is a Port Carrick, but it’s in Scotland. Portcarrick is described as where Gerry views “the North Atlantic meeting the Irish Sea”.
G. “Twenty minutes took them to an industrial estate north-west of the city” (chapter 38 – 223)
(H). “a few acres of land and a modest house that straddled the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, where Country Armagh became County Monaghan.” (chapter15 – 98) Bull O’Kane country. Actually the “H” should probably be on the Ireland side of the border? Can’t recall.
(hide spoiler)]
(masquer le spoiler)]
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…Suite
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