Book Review: Southern N (2018) : Policing and the Combating of Terrorism in Northern Ireland: The Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. Palgrave MacMillan

Debates about the past in Northern Ireland still remain hotly contested, and in over twenty years since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, an agreed account of the 'truth' about events and actions during the conflict remain as polarised as ever. Yet Southern's book presents a potentially unique (and seldom told) insight into the views and experiences of a key actor in the conflict - the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), and officers who served in the organisation. Yet aside from providing some very necessary police officer perspectives as part of the wider conflict narrative, the book also leaves itself open to questions around the robustness of perspective used, in many cases, to unquestionably justify the role of the RUC.