May the Lord in His Mercy be Kind to Belfast - Hardcover

Parker, Tony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224033123 ISBN 13: 9780224033121

Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1993

Synopsis

At last, after twenty years, Tony Parker - one of the world's most brilliant interviewers - has found his subject: Northern Ireland. He has interviewed a huge range of people - terrorists, police, the army, politicians, housewives, priests - and he has produced a devastating and deeply controversial book. As Father Brown says, the Irish 'never exploited you, or oppressed you. There's no single instance in history of us having invaded you: nor come to that of doing it to any other country in Europe, so far as I'm aware. But what have you done to us? Not only what we've never done to you, but much worse than you've ever had done to you by anyone else. Massacres, transportations, gaoling, starvation, driving us off our lands, dividing them up in parcels and giving them as presents and rewards to your ruling nobles and men at court. The history of the British in Ireland over hundred of years is beyond description it is, indeed it's almost beyond belief. It's an appalling story'.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

No solution to Northern Ireland’s long drawn-out agony will be found with a proper and widespread understanding by all parties of the hopes and fears, the passions and prejudices, the suffering and grief of the people who live there. As a contribution to this understanding, Tony Parker’s book is a landmark achievement. By earning the trust of priests, politicians, prisoners, terrorists (both Loyalist and Republican), doctors, nurses, lawyers, bus-drivers, bomb-disposal experts, shop assistants, single mothers, teachers and schoolchildren, he has crossed every sectarian and social divide and, in these extraordinary encounters, exposed the core of the problem in the hearts and minds of individuals. The result makes quietly devastating reading – by turns moving, inspirational, disturbing, chilling but consistently illuminating.

‘A remarkable record of conversation by ordinary – occasionally extraordinary – Belfast people... Tony Parker’s editing of the conversation produces brilliant, funny, tragic, and often infuriating talk... a compulsively, readable book.’
JOHN COLE, 'Sunday Times'

‘This is Tony Parker at his best... a precious work. Through the uncanny integrity of these dramatic monologues the spirit of the North moves with soft, haunted steps.’
ROBERT WINDER, 'The Independent'

‘Tony Parker is an interviewer with an extraordinary capacity to filter what people say to him without turning their words his colour. His portraits, both of individuals and communities, are among the most illuminating and dignified that contemporary writing has to offer.’
MARY LOUDON, 'Sunday Times'

‘One of the most original and telling books to come out of the Northern conflict’
IRISH TIMES

Synopsis:

The author interviews a wide range of people, with the purpose of producing an authoritative and controversial volume on the past 20 years' troubles in Northern Ireland. Tony Parker is the author of "Life after Life: Interviews with 12 Murderers", also "Lighthouse" and "Soldier, Soldier."

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0224033123
• ISBN 13: 9780224033121
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368