Chapter 1
As a result of the Protestant attacks on Bombay Street, which the IRA failed to stop, a group of Nothern IRA members formed the provisional IRA, which split from the Marxist leadership in Dublin, who became known as the official IRA.
Brendan Hughes’ mother died when he was very young. His father raised him and five siblings. His paternal grandparents were well-off and had a house on a Protestant street. Growing up, Hughes was able to gain acceptance among some Protestant kids, but was still discriminated against by his Protestant neighbors constantly. Crazy old Mrs. McKissick spit on him and yelled on Sundays “Did you drink the Pope’s piss this morning?”
Hughes grew up in relative poverty, but his father was a working man who always supported him and his siblings. His father had been a member of the IRA in the old days, as had been his mother and grandparents and many other family members. His father was jailed with Gerry Adams, Sr. in the early 40s. Hughes grew up in awe of his father’s friend Billy McKee, an IR...
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