Excellent background information on the South Armagh Brigade's involvement in the fight for Irish unification. In this acclaimed work of reportage, originally published in 2000, Toby Harnden stripped away the myth and propaganda associated with the region to produce one of the most compelling and important books on the Troubles. On a separate tangent, this book (and the Troubles themselves) has been overlooked by the newly anointed crowd of Counterinsurgency "experts" focusing their attention on southwest Asia.

Collins eventually retracted from his deal with the prosecution and was later acquitted of all charges, after the Diplock (no jury) trial judge, Higgins, accepted that Collins had been mistreated.

The focus was on the IRA activities, but it also covers "dirty deeds" by the crown and local government, as well as Protestant militias. Though it is not entirely about him the figure that keeps coming up again and again is that of Thomas "Slab" Murphy, currently awaiting appeal for his conviction in British court on tax evasion and related charges. I'm not sure how successful this was as there where times when the commentary did seem slanted in regard upholding the 'bandit county' title of the book.

It was an operation that involved a converted vehicle containing a large bomb being sent running on railway lines towards a British Army base. From a point of history it is interesting to read how troubled this period was and how much things seem to have moved on. It's layout was somewhat scattered jumping back and forth between time and place and incident and location, etc. It is an impression of South Armagh that Bandit Country attempts to confirm throughout its chapters, but is it a fair reflection of reality?

Here Kevin Traynor studies if the area has managed to embrace the Good Friday agreement as the rest of Northern Ireland has, or whether a legacy of the conflict still lingers with a sense of paranoia and suspicion.