Decoding the IRA

Newly decoded secret documents reveal the mindset of the IRA between 1920 and 1960.Historian, Thomas Mahon, with the aid of cryptologist and code breaker, Jim Gillogly, has spent the past few years breaking the IRA's secret communications code, used to pass messages back and forth between Ireland and America from the 1920s until the 1960s - the results are explosive.From discussions about mundane matters to considerations of deals with the USSR and China, the IRA letters delve into just about every matter conceivable for a paramilitary organisation. Some of the ideas are mundane discussions about money and the likelihood of infiltration but others, like the proposal to source gas for use in Ireland, are a dangerous and unnerving insight into how the organisation saw itself and conducted its business in secrecy.With the eye of a historian and the tools of a professional code breaker, Thomas and Jim have together created a wonderful and engrossing read.