Reviews and Awards
"A well written and convincing study of a neglected aspect of loyalist formation and identity, this book makes a valuable contribution to the literature on loyalism." - Dr Graham Spencer, University of Portsmouth
"Mulvenna has made an important contribution to existing work on the loyalist paramilitaries, including that by Scottish academics Steve Bruce and Ian S Wood. The book is among the best accounts of the sweaty, bloody chaos of the early troubles and further confirmation that the best work about the conflict is that which uses oral history to full effect." - Alasdair McKillop, Scottish Review
"Rather than romanticise or glorify the loyalist violence that followed from what were originally small gangs of young men dressed in tartan scarves to organised paramilitary organisations, Mulvenna breaks it down in a way that I admit made me think for the first time about my own understanding of loyalism. His book does not make for easy reading at times, but it is nonetheless an important study of the past which is incredibly relevant in the here and now. The now old men who spoke to Mulvenna about their experiences use the same language the young men of east Belfast are using now. That fear of cultural erosion may well be based on perception rather than reality but what this book demonstrates if nothing else is how unwise it is dismiss those fears and risk history repeating itself." - Allison Morris, The Irish News
"Tartan Gangs makes an important contribution to one of the most contentious features of post-conflict Northern Ireland, namely the notion of 'legacy'. The author has publicly expressed frustrations that amid much focus on issues of collusion and the role of the state, the Loyalist experience, still generally portrayed as brutal and unsophisticated, remains at the edges of the "uncomfortable conversations". Mulvenna's study is a valiant attempt at teasing out the often overlooked motivations of Loyalism, its notions of defending its areas, its cultural and social way of life and where Republicanism is viewed, not as part of a world revolutionary movement, but as the catalyst for sectarian carnage in their communities." - Gerry Braiden, Herald Scotland
"This is an important and valuable book. The story it tells is an important one and the concluding paragraph is bang on the money. Lessons still haven't been learned from that journey from Tartan gang to paramilitary gang, so I hope that politicians - from all parties - will read this book." - Alex Kane, News Letter
"...fascinating exploration of early 1970's Loyalism."- Ed Moloney, The Broken Elbow
"Gareth Mulvenna provides a fascinating insight into the world of young loyalists associated with the Tartan Gangs, Young Citizen Volunteers and Red Hand Commando. He relates these to earlier gangs and subcultures. Their mode of expression was governed by growing tensions in an increasingly divided Northern Ireland. Militant politicians, Ulster and Irish, had stirred up strife with little concern for the consequences. Young people were caught up in the violence but many eventually realised the futility of violence and worked to find a better way." - Roy Garland, journalist and author of Gusty Spence and The Ulster Volunteer Force: Negotiating History
"Gareth Mulvenna has written a classic with this study of the emergence of the Tartan gangs of Belfast in the early 1970's and their subsequent absorption, often as enthusiastic killers, into the ranks of the UVF, Red Hand Commando and Ulster Defence Association. With their origins in the Glasgow gangs and the Protestant reaction to the growth of IRA violence in 1970-72, symbolised by the killing of three Scottish soldiers in 1971, the Tartan gangs were an important part of Unionist selfhood at the outbreak of the Troubles. He has also shown that despite the best efforts of the British security establishment and their political allies in the new Northern Ireland government, it is possible to write a serious and valuable history of those who participated in the violence. I have no hesitation in recommending this valuable and well written book." - Ed Moloney, journalist and author of A Secret History of the IRA and Paisley: From Demagogue to Democrat?
