An excellant start.
For anyone with an interest in, or curiosity about, the recent troubles in Ireland this book is an excellent beginning. One of it's strengths is that it makes the subject very accessible. Something I like about it is that it was not written by someone 'writing history', whatever that is.
It is a very good example of what might have been meant by the genius who described 'history' as, "just one damned thing after another", as it recounts events as they were reported day in, day out in the Daily Newspapers. This means that there are lots of interesting facts included which 'historians' didn't think helped their thesis, or version of HISTORY.