In response to the review by the so-called teacher from Belfast(who couldn't even spell teacher, and several other words) I must point out that this is a review of the book, not a forum for you to air your bigotry and hatred of a certain organisation. This book is obviously badly researched, relying on information from sources who have reason to show the INLA in a bad light.It would have benefitted from the input of a range of objective and informed contributors who want to present a well researched and true reflection of this organisation. And, as I currently live in Northern Ireland, and have lived there all my life, you may not find it so easy to discredit my opinion on this matter.

As a member of the IRSM for the past 18 years, I am well aware of the movement this work claims to be the history of, and it is from this vantage point that I can state it is so filled with false information it is impossible to rely upon as a historical source.

From start to finish the authors depart from any pretense of historical objectivity and instead turn of vicious black propaganda of the worst sort.

Noone active in the Irish Republican Socialist Movement was interviewed for the book, but instead it is based almost entirely on the testimony of Harry Flynn, who left the movement in 1983-84 in a bitter dispute and never returned. Never, that is, other than in a strange alliance with Gerard Steeson who had once ordered his death, the sole purpose of which was to destroy the Irish National Liberation Army.

Even the supposed interview with the INLA's chief of staff published as an appendix is false, having actually been composed by IRSP member Liz LaGrua in response to written questions the author submitted.

I've read "Deadly Divisions," and I thought it was outstanding. As far as sources the author used, well, I looked some of them over in the Linen Hall Library Political Collection, and they seemed pretty extensive to me. I was particularly impressed with the fact that the authors gained access to the "comms," messages written by imprisoned gunmen and passed secretly during contact visits with their supporters on the outside. The research certainly didn't make me think the word "shallow" or "biased."

Something tells me that the people who villify this book are pretty much the sort that would consider anything but a "love letter" written about the INLA to be "biased." Well, as I've said in my post, I beg to differ.

ps. I met with Henry McDonald in Belfast in 1994 where I interviewed him for a paper on the INLA leader Dominic McGlinchey. He was quite helpful to me.