This is an account of how an angry young man can cross the line that divides theoretical support for violence from a state of "killing rage," in which the murder of neighbor becomes thinkable. Over 3,000 people have died in Northern Ireland since 1969, and most of them have died at the hands of their neighbors. The intimacy of the Ulster conflict, what it means to carry out a political murder when in all probability the victim is personally known, or lives in a nearby street, is described accurately by an honest participant. The book does not attempt to soften the impact of the events it describes through euphemism or rhetoric. It is a truthful picture of the brutality and waste caused by the IRA's unwinnable campaign, and of its human consequences. It is also a self-portrait of the despair and disintegration, the hardening to conscience and grief, that accompany political violence.
Eamon Collins never pulled a trigger for the Irish Republican Army. But he helped organize several hits--some "successful," others not. Upon joining the IRA, he was warned that "in all probability, [he] would end up on the run, in prison, or dead." Collins would end up all three: after a bombing attack--in which he had played no part--he was arrested, and after five days of punishing interrogation, agreed to turn informer. Changes of heart eventually led him to recant his confessions, and he was sent to prison. Upon his release, the IRA forced him into exile "outside the war zone." As time passed, he returned to his family home and tried to move on. In 1995 Collins appeared on British television to tell the story of his life in the IRA.
Killing Rage presents his story in fuller detail, allowing Collins to try to explain "why a segment of people within the Catholic population believed that the best way to redress their grievances was through violence." Collins also painted an unsavory portrait of the IRA--while showing their Protestant counterparts in an equally unflattering light.
In his introduction, Collins admits he is sorry about the deaths he caused:
But my sorrow is not enough.... By exposing myself to the anger of my former comrades and the families of my victims, I wanted to show that I had thought long and hard about what had happened and that it is possible to become a different person--as we all have to become different people if we are to live together in Northern Ireland without political violence.
Killing Rage, however, clearly reopened old wounds. Collins was found murdered on January 28, 1999.
--Sunny Delaney
