I Ran for Cover As Shots Rang Out Across the Road...That Was My Welcome ; in the Second Part of His Dramatic Memoirs, the Iraq War Hero Recalls the Night His Men Faced a Murderous Mob in His Home Town,Review

Summary

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Waiting for the order to confront a crowd is like being a boxer nervously impatient for his bout.

So it was as the company waited in Girdwood Barracks, north Belfast, one night in 2001. My men from the 1st Battalion the Royal Irish had been asked to reinforce the resident battalion in peacekeeping duties.

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I Ran for Cover As Shots Rang Out Across the Road...That Was My Welcome ; in the Second Part of His Dramatic Memoirs, the Iraq War Hero Recalls the Night His Men Faced a Murderous Mob in His Home Town,Review

We in 1 R Irish had a particularly difficult line to walk in Northern Ireland. We had men from across Ireland, many with close family links in both communities.

One man's uncle had escaped during the Republican breakout from the Maze prison in 1983. Others had brothers and fathers who had served life sentences for murder on the Loyalist side.

My Irish soldiers stood uncomfortably between the warring communities, saddened and disgusted by the hatred spewed forth by both factions in the city where I was born. An...

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