Published by Gill & Macmillan June 5th 2009.

The recent report by the Commission to Inquire into Child abuse, instigated by Bertie Ahern in 1999, caused a furore in the Irish media and made headlines all over the world. Set in place as a reconciliation procedure for those who suffered at the hands of the notorious Irish industrial school system, it was chaired by Judge Sean Ryan. The Irish Gulag challenges the motive, purpose and direction of this supposed State process of reconciliation and it’s been creating quite a stir in the Irish media:

The Irish Gulag shows that, far from being for the abused victims, the commission was aimed at self-protection by the State. It involved a conspiracy between Church and State, demonstrated by the so-called ‘Secret Deal’ between the two. This was aimed at lessening the cost of independent legal action by victims and confining it within an imposed redress system that was made statutorily secretive.

The Power Game lifts the lid on the modern struggles for power within Fianna Fáil, including the heaves against Charles Haughey and the shafting of Albert Reynolds.

It also explores in detail the careers of Jack Lynch, Charles Haughey, Albert Reynolds and Bertie Ahern, and looks at the impact on the party of the explosive revelations at the judicial tribunals about the extent of corruption in Irish public life.

New material: Stephen Collins examines the most recent disclosures concerning the arms crisis of 1970 and information released from the military archives.

Jack Lynch is one of the most important and most underrated Irish political leaders of the twentieth century. A sportsman who won six All-Ireland medals in a row with Cork, he was also a civil servant in the Department of Justice and a barrister on the Southern Circuit before being elected to Dáil Éireann in 1948. During his thirty-one unbroken years as a parliamentarian, he was first a junior minister and then, between 1957 and 1966, held the ministries of Education, Industry and Commerce and Finance. Those neglected years of his life are examined in detail in this book.

Succeeding Seán Lemass as Taoiseach in 1966, Lynch became the first post-revolutionary leader of Fianna Fáil. He held office during the critical years of the late 1960s and early 1970s when Northern Ireland disintegrated, precipitating one of the worst crises in the history of the Irish state.