"The IRA: The Irish Republican Army" begins by examining the historical background to the development of the IRA, the group's basic ideology, and its aims and objectives. The second part of the book concentrates on the IRA--specifically the Provisional IRA--as a contemporary phenomenon, explaining its organization, how it operates, who joins the IRA, and why.

The book explores how the IRA was formed from a Romantic reaction against modernity, and is an expression of a vehement rejection of the liberal, individualist, and scientific values of the Enlightenment. The IRA's attachment to...