This chapter investigates a number of recent memoirs by a range of journalists who have reported on the Northern Ireland conflict, and develops an interpretation of these sources based upon several prominent themes: first, the extent to which the author may be understood as an ‘insider’ or an ‘outsider’ with regard to the political life of Northern Ireland; second, the particular spatial dimension of the journalist's experience of the conflict; third, the temporal dimension of this experience, both in the sense of the period of their reporting from or within Northern Ireland, and the distance between their professional day-to-day engagement with the conflict, and the act of memoir-writing; fourth, the degree to which the writing is genuinely autobiographical, reflecting upon the changing internal life of the author and the development of that life, or whether the focus is more squarely upon the external events and deeds that the author was reporting; and, finally, the extent to which these publications reflect upon the role of the journalist (whether primarily operating in the print or the broadcast media) in the specific conditions of the Northern Ireland conflict, and the wider lessons that might be drawn regarding journalism in conflict zones.

My War Gone by, I Miss it so …

A number of journalists with extensive experience of Northern Ireland have written important and influential historical analyses of particular aspects of the conflict. Of the high-profile journalists who have reported from Belfast, a small number have written genuinely ground-breaking works alongside their mainstream reportage. For instance, Ed Moloney has published a popular history of the Provisional IRA, as well as a biography of the unionist leader, Ian Paisley. David McKittrick has published several volumes of collected journalism, but is best-known for the monumental 1,600-page Lost Lives, detailing the deaths of the almost 3,700 people killed as a result of the conflict. Chris Ryder has written well-received histories of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) and the prison service in Northern Ireland. Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack have written detailed studies of several of the major paramilitary groups engaged in the conflict, including the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).