Book Review

Book review: Death in the Fields examines a vicious corner of an embattled North

Jonathan Trigg, historian and former British soldier, focuses on Tyrone’s role in the conflict in this painstakingly even-handed and insightful study

Trainee members of the Provisional IRA practise guerilla warfare tactics in a secret location in the countryside near the border of Donegal and Tyrone, August 1986. Picture: Getty

British security forces developed a special loathing for the IRA’s fearsome East Tyrone Brigade.

In July 1984, the SAS shot and killed bomber William Price during an attempted Provo attack on a factory in Ardboe. Back at headquarters, soldiers celebrated by eating a cake shaped like a cross with the dead man’s name and “RIP” written in icing.

Gruesome stories like this are littered throughout Jonathan Trigg’s impressively researched and even-handed study of Tyrone’s role ...