Congratulations to Chris Bray, who has been a stalwart friend to all those on the side of academic freedom during the five years of the Boston College case, for his new book ‘Court-Martial’ which was published in New York today.
It has been published by W W Norton, who happen to be my publishers for the US edition of ‘A Secret History of the IRA’, and we toasted the event with a bottle of champagne.
There is more principle and integrity in Chris’ little finger than in the entirety of the PSNI’s Legacy Unit and Barra McGrory’s PPS put together.
‘Court-Martial’ tells the story of US Military justice, or injustice as the case may be, down through the decades since the British were forced to make a hasty retreat from Yorktown nearly two-and-a-half centuries ago.
Thanks, Ed. Enjoyed that champagne, too. I only wish Jack Dunn could have joined us.
I should mention that there’s also a discussion in the book of Irish-American soldiers who deserted during the American war with Mexico (1846-1848) after being abused by nativist officers. It’s the story of the St. Patrick’s Battalion:
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qis01