ABSTRACT
In many of the distant corners of the world Ireland is noted, if at all, not as the home of saints and scholars but rather the fount of the Irish Rebel. With the rise of the present troubles in Ulster, a new interest has been shown in the contemporary Irish Republican Army (IRA) gunmen. A composite picture of the Irish Troubles can be gleaned by the thrillers, written by both the innocent and the informed. It is hardly profound but may represent the wisdom of the commom reader. The common reader is not yet ready for a politically successful "terrorist" organization as once he was not for the American Indian. As far as can be discerned from the usual indicators of American public opinion, the real public agrees with the authors. In the thrillers and out of them, the IRA has blotted its copy book with no-warning bombs, assassinations, cycles of civilian deaths—all the techniques of terror.
