How to Fix Northern Ireland

(Paperback, Main)

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'Deeply researched and often revelatory... variegated and sensitive' Literary Review

It is twenty-five years since the Good Friday Agreement brought an end to the terrible violence that rocked Northern Ireland for decades. Yet, in this controversial and provocative new book, Malachi O'Doherty argues that it completely ignored the real reason behind the conflict and instead left a festering wound at the core of society.

Part memoir, part history and part polemic, How to Fix Northern Ireland shows how the country's deep division is simply not about whether it should be governed as part of Ireland or as part of Britain - as presumed by the agreement - but rather is fundamentally sectarian, an inter-ethnic stress comparable to racism.

O'Doherty reveals how the split between catholics and protestants continues to invade everyday life - from education and segregated housing, from street protests, bonfires and parades to the high politics of power sharing and Brexit - and asks what can be done to solve a centuries-old social rift and heal the relationship at the heart of the problem.

Reviews

It is deeply researched and often revelatory. It is not without humour either... The book is a variegated and sensitive exploration of how sectarianism plays out in education, geography, language, dating, marriage, sports and newspapers. O'Doherty expertly guides us through a world where people still have to watch what they say, whether out of fear or common decency. * Literary Review *
A haunting portrait of a vanished place and time... written with such grace, tenderness, anger and, most of all, sorrow... Gripping and brilliant... Every word is suffused with humanity. * Sunday Independent on The Year of Chaos *
O'Doherty's analysis is convincing precisely because he lived through what he is analysing. * Sunday Times on The Year of Chaos *

Author Bio

Malachi O'Doherty is a writer and broadcaster based in Belfast. He is a regular contributor to the Belfast Telegraph and to several BBC radio programmes. He covered the Troubles and the peace process as a journalist and has written for a number of Irish and British newspapers and magazines, including the Irish Times, the New Statesman, the Scotsman and the Guardian.