Roseanna Doughty

‘I will therefore imagine that the target reader is an English MP with a typical level of knowledge of the problem.’

‘When I was posted to the Northern Ireland Office for what turned out to be a spell of 10 years (1988-98) I was conscious that Ireland had a good deal of history, as much a curse as a boon some said, and that I was largely ignorant of it.’

‘… it was reported to have been the most frequently stolen book from Belfast bookshops…’

‘You either give up when the blood hits the carpet or persevere until its merciless end.’

‘…the need to understand long pasts and to look simultaneously at non-state violence, at state action, and at the mutually-shaping relationships between them.’

‘… the benefits of interdisciplinarity’

‘… scholars are seeking to explore a wide range of under-exposed aspects of the conflict, recovering nuances and experimenting with methodology.’

‘ … the most dishevelled book in my collection…’

‘… it is possible to grasp the intellectual descent of ideas in Northern Ireland whilst not fathoming its postcode system…’

‘I had changed my course from Psychology having been caught one evening on the fringes of a gun battle between army and loyalists at Shaftesbury Square…’

‘it would have been more embarrassing to mistake someone’s religion than their gender, and equally inconceivable…’

‘I have gone for books which have constantly influenced me, that is books that I have re-read many times…’