Joe Cahill : A Life in the IRA

IRA activists rarely speak about their lives or their organisation, but here Joe Cahill gives his full and frank story, his viewpoint, his experiences - from Northern Irish prison cells of the 1940s, on a death sentence, to Washington when the Good Friday Agreement was being negotiated.

"I was born in a united Ireland, I want to die in a united Ireland". Born in Belfast in 1920, Joe Cahill has been an IRA man motivated by this ambition all his life. IRA activists rarely speak about their lives or their organisation, but here Cahill gives his full and frank story, his viewpoint, his experiences - from Northern Irish prison cells of the 1940s, on a death sentence, to Washington when the Good Friday Agreement was being negotiated. He tells of the visit he made to Colonel Gaddafi to arrange for arms and ammunition, and the fateful voyage of the Claudia; Bloody Sunday and the burning of the British Embassy in Dublin; the catastrophic bombing of Claudy, Germany; the high-drama helicopter escape of IRA prisoners from Portlaoise Jail. This is the story of an extraordinary journey, Cahill's own life mirroring the growth, changes and development of the republican movement as a whole through more than 60 years of intense involvement.