Tartan Gangs and Paramilitaries is a new oral history of the loyalist backlash of the early 1970s in Northern Ireland. In the violent maelstrom of Belfast in 1971 and 1972 many young members of loyalist youth gangs known as 'Tartans' converged with fledgling paramilitary groups such as the Red Hand Commando, Ulster Volunteer Force and Young Citizen Volunteers. This fresh account focuses on the manner in which the loyalist community in Belfast reacted to an increasingly vicious Provisional IRA campaign and explores the violent role that young loyalist men played in the period from 1970 – 1975. Through the use of unique one-on-one interviews former members of Tartan gangs and loyalist paramilitaries explain what motivated them to cross the Rubicon from gang activity to paramilitaries. The book utilises a wide range of sources such as newspaper articles, loyalist newssheets, coroners' inquest reports and government memorandums to provide the context for a dynamic new study of the emergence of loyalist paramilitarism.

Dr Graham Spencer,

Ed Moloney, journalist

Roy Garland, journalist

...fascinating exploration of early 1970's Loyalism.

Ed Moloney Source: The Broken Elbow

This is an important and valuable book. The story it tells is an important one and the concluding paragraph is bang on the money. Lessons still haven’t been learned from that journey from Tartan gang to paramilitary gang, so I hope that politicians – from all parties – will read this book.

Alex Kane Source: News Letter

Tartan Gangs makes an important contribution to one of the most contentious features of post-conflict Northern Ireland, namely the notion of 'legacy'. The author has publicly expressed frustrations that amid much focus on issues of collusion and the role of the state, the Loyalist experience, still generally portrayed as brutal and unsophisticated, remains at the edges of the “uncomfortable conversations”. Mulvenna’s study is a valiant attempt at teasing out the often overlooked motivations of Loyalism, its notions of defending its areas, its cultural and social way of life and where Republicanism is viewed, not as part of a world revolutionary movement, but as the catalyst for sectarian carnage in their communities.

Gerry Braiden Source: Herald Scotland

Rather than romanticise or glorify the loyalist violence that followed from what were originally small gangs of young men dressed in tartan scarves to organised paramilitary organisations, Mulvenna breaks it down in a way that I admit made me think for the first time about my own understanding of loyalism. His book does not make for easy reading at times, but it is nonetheless an important study of the past which is incredibly relevant in the here and now. The now old men who spoke to Mulvenna about their experiences use the same language the young men of east Belfast are using now. That fear of cultural erosion may well be based on perception rather than reality but what this book demonstrates if nothing else is how unwise it is dismiss those fears and risk history repeating itself.

Allison Morris Source: The Irish News

Mulvenna has made an important contribution to existing workon the loyalist paramilitaries, including that by Scottish academics SteveBruce and Ian S Wood. The book is among the best accounts of the sweaty, bloodychaos of the early troubles and further confirmation that the best work aboutthe conflict is that which uses oral history to full effect.

Alasdair McKillop Source: Scottish Review