Killing Rage [Paperback]

Collins was born in 1954 and joined the IRA in late 70s. Not a dry history but a very exciting book from the inside. It contains a number of nicknames of leading IRA men scap,hardbap,mooch,hawk etc in the area who have since been named in other books and publications. Collins became part of an intelligence unit as well as an internal security unit in his native newry area. He was arrested in 1985 and became an informer however he quickly changed his mind but stayed on remand in prison for 2 years. The IRA exiled him as he didn't testify against them. He lived in Southern Ireland for 3 years,returning to Belfast for 2 years to work quietley in a college,then to Edinburgh,Scotland as a community worker.Finally in 1994 he returned to his home area thinking he was safe. He made a tv programme in 95 talking about his life which was critical of the IRA then in 97 this book was published,a devastating critique of the provos. After regularly receiving death threats he was brutally beaten to death.
One of the ironies of the case is a number of the IRA men who were his former colleagues and were critical of him,were themselves later revealed to be informers including stakeknife/scap. It has to be said ALL autobiographies are prone to be one sided and to minimize wrong doing but this is a great book revealing operations ,methodology and IRA /Sinn Fein tensions at that time.

Collins comments in his introduction that none of the "endless books and films" about Northern Ireland "had touched the heart of the true horror". Collins' autobiography of a deeply disillusioned IRA volunteer contains a variety of dimensions that capture a lot of that horror. This book is a mix of terrorist action, pettiness and incompetence, some good sociological insights and critical analyses, together with a pretty frank and honest inner psychological narrative.
It starts with a very readable account of Collins' family and upbringing and then the factors that lead to his joining the IRA. These are interesting, because, besides his arrest together with his father and brother at the age of 18, and the brutal treatment received at the hands of the British army, we find the crucial influence of the small but (at universities) ubiquitous and ever-pernicious Revolutionary Communists. Absurd as it may seem, an Irishman from republican border territory is led towards the IRA by a middle-class English member of the revolutionary communists, and Collins' account of the brainwashing effect of repeated marches and meetings is most interesting. We then get a fascinating in-depth and detailed story of his ambivalent thoughts and feelings towards, and accumulating disillusionment with the republican movement. This account includes detailed descriptions of IRA operations and also a diverse array of IRA volunteers. Collins' roles within the IRA included planning, intelligence, recruiting and de-briefing and he doesn't hold back on any of the details. His story shows an IRA devoid of glamour, peopled by a range of characters whose psychology and personalities Collins manages to bring alive. He is deeply conscious of the suffering in which he played a key role and there is none of the mechanical 'people get killed in war' type of cop-out in his description of death. Such incidents range from the anguished reaction of a UDR man's wife and child as they witness his death, to the IRA man who incinerates himself in a fire-bomb attack and, abandoned by his colleagues, runs three miles home, naked and charred. (He dies of his injuries several weeks later.) The latter part of the book contains a graphic account of Collins' interrogation by police, including the psychological dimension, and his subsequent collaboration with the state. Although he eventually retracts, there are some fascinating glimpses into a rather quirky social grouping which crosses sectarian divides - the supergrass community! This is thus a wide-ranging book which gives innumerable insights into the world which Collins inhabited.

Collins was killed in 1999,probably by republicans disgusted by his break with the IRA and his subsequent public denunciations of republicanism,especially the paramilitary variety.
This is a narrative of his coming of age,his involvement with the IRA,up to and including murder,his subsequeny arrest,confession and retraction,his break with republicanism and a short account of life in exile in the Irish Republic and scotland,with musings about life after armed republicanism.
He freely admits to becoming something close to non-human,someone purely obsessed with eliminating his enemies,and he has the grace to say sorry to all of his victims.
Problem is that his account of republican politics seems projected backwards from after his break with the IRA.He claims his disillusionment set in long before the break,but he had no problems continuing in an organisation he says he detested,and he also states he could have left the IRA with few or no problems.
Still,a good insight into the banality of evil,Northern Ireland-style.