"Adams saw a long time before I did that the armed struggle was taking nationalists nowhere."
McGartland's best-seller, on the other hand, is clearly sceptical of this describing as "extraordinary" the notion that Adams knew nothing of IRA decisions while, he says, he served on its Army Council. McGartland salutes campaigners against "the unbridled violence of the despicable punishment squads."
Both books savage terrorism but come to different political conclusions. Their weakness is that both authors knew little of the debates at the top of the republican movement as they were both foot-soldiers in relatively isolated positions. The forthcoming autobiography from Sean O'Callaghan, a leading figure in both Sinn Fein and the IRA, will probably add much to their accounts. But Collins and McGartland should be read by anyone wishing to understand why some join the IRA and its stomach-churning reality.

Gary Kent. The author is the Westminster Correspondent of the Belfast based Fortnight Magazine.