Tim Pat Coogan

When the Irish nationalist Michael Collins signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, he observed to Lord Birkenhead that he may have signed his own death warrant. In August 1922 that prophecy came true when Collins was ambushed, shot and killed by a compatriot, but his vision and legacy lived on. Tim Pat Coogan's biography presents the life of a man whose idealistic vigor and determination were matched by his political realism and organizational abilities. This is the classic biography of the man who created modern Ireland.

In light of the recent movement toward all-party talks - notwithstanding the IRA's resumption of terrorist bombing attacks in England - Tim Pat Coogan offers a balanced and reflective assessment of the complex conflicts in contemporary Northern Ireland. An authoritative observer of the nationalist cause with strong political contacts on both sides of the border, Coogan sets the historical context for the resurgence of centuries-old tensions that led to the civil protest and pogroms of the late 1960s. He examines the introduction of British forces to the streets of Derry and Belfast and the reaction to their presence - at first welcomed as protection from Loyalist attack, they were soon resented by nationalists and many became victims of the Republican forces' outrage. Coogan insightfully probes the spread of IRA violence across the Irish Sea to key locations in Britain and the responses of the British government, its troops, and various Unionist organizations.

"The Irish Republican Army (IRA) (Irish: Óglaigh na hÉireann) was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916. In 1919, the Irish Republic that had been proclaimed during the Easter Rising was formally established by an elected assembly (Dáil Éireann), and the Irish Volunteers were recognised by Dáil Éireann as its legitimate army. Thereafter, the IRA waged a guerrilla campaign against British rule in Ireland in the 191921 Irish War of Independence. Following the signing in 1921 of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which ended the War of Independence, a split occurred within the IRA. Members who supported the treaty formed the nucleus of the Irish National Army founded by IRA leader Michael Collins. However, much of the IRA was opposed to the treaty. The anti-treaty IRA fought a civil war with their former comrades in 192223, with the intention of creating a fully independent all-Ireland republic. Having lost the civil war, this group remained in existence, with the intention of overthrowing both the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland and achieving the Irish Republic proclaimed in 1916."--Wikipedia.

"The 1916 Easter Rising and its aftermath changed Ireland for ever. The British government's execution of 14 republican rebels transformed a group hitherto perceived as cranks and troublemakers into national heroes. Those who avoided the British firing squads of May 1916 went on to plan a new - and ultimately successful - struggle for Ireland's independence, shaping their country's destiny for the century to come. But what sort of country did they create? And to what extent does post-1916 Ireland measure up to the hopes and aspirations of 'MacDonagh and MacBride / And Connolly and Pearse'? Best-selling historian Tim Pat Coogan offers a strongly personal perspective on the Irish century that followed the Rising - charting a flawed history that is marked as much by complacency, corruption and institutional and clerical abuse, as it is by the sacrifices and nation-building achievements of the Republic's founding fathers"-- "There's before 1916 and then there's after. Between them lies the Easter Rising, when Irish republicans took up arms against British rule and changed the course of their country's history forever. For though the resistance failed, it failed gloriously; the rebels were no longer a group of cranks and troublemakers in the public eye, but martyrs and national heroes, their example set the way for others and their mission lived on through the century to come. But what sort of country did the Rising create? And how does post-1916 Ireland compare with the aspirations of the rebellions leaders, the hopes of Thomas MacDonagh and John MacBride, of James Connolly and Pádraig Pearse? One hundred years later, Tim Pat Coogan offers a personal perspective on the Irish experience that followed the Rising. He charts a flawed history that is marked as much by complacency, corruption, and institutional abuse as it is by the building of a nation and the sacrifices of the Republic's founding fathers." -- Publisher's description

In 1994, Anchee Min published 'Red Azalea', a memoir of growing up during the violent trauma of the Cultural Revolution. It became an international bestseller. 20 years later, Min returns to give us the next chapter, as she moves from the shocking deprivations of her homeland to the sudden bounty of the promised land of America, without language, money or a clear path.