David Burke uncovers the clandestine activities of Patrick Crinnion, a Garda intelligence officer who secretly served MI6 during the early years of the Troubles. As the Garda Síochána launched a manhunt for the Chief-of-Staff of the IRA, Crinnion found himself playing a crucial role in the effort to track him down. Before his disappearance, Crinnion's actions exposed a web of secrets including those of another British spy in the Irish police, damaging intelligence leaks, gunrunning by Irish politicians, and a cover-up related to the murder of a Garda. Burke reveals MI6's shady dealings, from attempts to smear Irish politicians to plans for using criminals as assassins and the secret surveillance of a key IRA member. Crinnion fled into exile. The Puppet Masters not only reveals what became of him but also provides an insightful look into a turbulent period marked by covert operations, betrayal, and the power struggle that shaped modern Irish history.

Inspired by the book Stasiland, this work is an attempt to see if some of the state practices that flourished in Communist Eastern Europe might be replicated in modern Ireland. It goes into the question of intelligence agencies, what agencies are active in Ireland, how they harass dissidents, their use of modern technology and their role in secretly supporting paramilitary groups in Ireland and around the world. It includes a lot of first hand testimony of state harassment, and even torture, which is on a par with what happened in countries like East Germany. Finally it concludes with some searching questions about the real government policies being pursued in Ireland.

Self-proclaimed defenders of Ulster, condemned by their opponents as thugs and murderers, Protestant paramilitaries have been responsible for around half of the civilian casualties in Ulster. Their operations have succeeded on occasion in subverting major political initiatives and have even brought down a government. Yet despite the familiarity of such names as the UDA, the UVF, the Red Hand commando, and the Shankhill Butchers, such groups remain little studied and poorly understood. This book, the first comprehensive study of loyalist terrorism in Ulster, draws on extensive interviews with terrorists conducted by the author, to assemble the most accurate picture possible of their methods and motives. Steve Bruce examines all aspects of their organizations from their origins and background, to the way in which they recruit their members, raise funds, and select and execute their terrorist operations. He also discusses claims that the security forces have at times turned a blind eye to the Protestant paramilitaries' activities. Bruce concludes by arguing that the paradoxical nature of pro-state terrorism - which seeks to maintain, rather than overturn, state power by violent means - informs every significant aspect of the loyalists' activities. In addition to being an important contribution to our understanding of the relationship between terrorism and the modern state, The Red Hand is essential reading for anyone who wishes to gain a fuller understanding of Northern Ireland's present Troubles.

Includes section "Book reviews".