Talk:Ed Moloney

Basically, this article was a load of crap.

• He book has been widely praised as the first "insider" account of the IRA, as it draws heavily from Moloney's personal contacts within the organisation.

Unsourced, and probably not true. Nobody else used personal contacts within the organisation? Dillon? Taylor? Bell? The list goes on....

• Moloney's book presents the then (2002) startling thesis that the leadership of Sinn Féin, most notably Gerry Adams, and the British Government had been negotiating an end of the conflict in Northern Ireland since the mid 1980s and that the IRA campaign up until the 1994 ceasefire was being gradually wound down.

Unsourced and probably untrue. No contact took place while Thatcher was in power, and the contacts between the British Government and Republican Movement after that were well documented before Moloney.

• Moloney also strongly implies, but does not directly say, that the IRA was penetrated at senior levels by British informers and spies and this was partly responsible for the end of its armed campaign.

The IRA's increasing difficulty in carrying out an armed campaign due to these factors was documented before Moloney.

• In the Summer 2007 edition of Iris: The Republican Magazine, published by Sinn Féin, Martin McGuinness seemingly confirms Moloney's thesis concerning the negotiations between the British Government and Sinn Féin

See above, and that's analysis added by an editor, not that the rest isn't seemingly....

• In 2003 allegations that Freddie Scappaticci was an informant and the 2006 outing of Denis Donaldson appeared to confirm Moloney's theses with respect to informers.

See above.

• Included in the second edition of A Secret History of the IRA is a very important letter from Father Alec Reid to then Irish Taoiseach Charles Haughey.

Context please, and source it properly - ie, not to the book itself. One Night In Hackney₃₀₃ 17:44, 8 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

ONIH. Thanks for cleaning this up. Your editing prompted me to add a link to several reviews of the book, and a direct quotation from one of those reviews. This will better inform readers.

It is not clear what you mean by "no contact took place while Thatcher was in power," but if you mean that there was no contact between the Republican movement and British representatives while Thatcher was in power Moloney has it otherwise. According to him, there was contact during the hunger-strike (p. 207, Moloney) and there was contact in the late 1980s/1990 prior to Thatcher's departure (pp. 259-60, 282-83). "Thatcher's departure revived the process," says Moloney (p. 283). WH--WilliamHanrahan (talk) 17:21, 12 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Actually that should have read "no contact post-hunger strike", since that is well documented. Anyway, this article is about Ed Moloney, not text dumps of reviews of his book so re-stubbed. Please write about Ed Moloney, if you want to write an article about his book go ahead. One Night In Hackney₃₀₃ 17:30, 12 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Thanks. How do I write an article? Never done one.... WH.--WilliamHanrahan (talk) 17:41, 12 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Is he Irish? He always sounded English to me. I used to know him. Cooke (talk) 17:52, 10 December 2008 (UTC)Reply