Counterinsurgency and Collusion in Northern Ireland

Collusion by British state forces in killings perpetrated by loyalist paramilitaries was a dubious hallmark of the ‘dirty war’ in the north of Ireland. Now, more than twenty years since the Good Friday Agreement, the story of collusion remains one of the most enduring and contentious legacies of the conflict, a shadow that trails British counterinsurgency to this day.

Here Mark McGovern turns back the clock to the late 1980s and early ‘90s—the ‘endgame’ of the Troubles and a period defined by a rash of state-sanctioned paramilitary killings. Drawing on previously unpublished evidence, and original testimony of victims’ families and eyewitnesses, McGovern examines several dozen killings of republicans and their families and communities that took place in the Mid-Ulster area. Placing these accounts within a wider critical analysis of the nature of British counterinsurgency and the state use of agents and informers, McGovern paints a damning picture of covert, deniable, and unlawful violence.

Coluziunea fortelor statului britanic in uciderile comise de paramilitari loiali a fost un semn distinctiv dubios al „razboiului murdar” din nordul Irlandei. Acum, la mai bine de douazeci de ani de la Acordul de Vinerea Mare, povestea coluziunii ramane una dintre cele mai durabile si controversate mosteniri ale conflictului, o umbra care urmareste contrainsurgenta britanica pana in prezent.