The book:

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• assesses the motivations and campaigns of the IRA, UVF and UDA and other armed groups
  
• discusses what each paramilitary group achieved through violence
  
• analyses the continuing controversies surrounding the Northern Irelands dirty war
  
• outlines the extent of collusion between British security forces and loyalist paramilitaries
  
• explores how governments and political parties shaped the peace process
  
• scrutinizes prospects for the political development of unionism and nationalism within a devolved power sharing framework
  
• examines whether the sectarian divide is strengthening or weakening
  
• concludes by assessing whether Northern Ireland can move permanently from violence and instability to become a normal peaceful polity, in which the war is merely a historic relic

Written by an acknowledged expert in the field, Northern Ireland combines incisive analysis, original research and a lucid style to provide an important assessment of what has been described as an 800 year old problem.