Fiction

The Cold, Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty

The first in the Detective Sean Duffy series, centered on a Catholic cop in the Royal Ulster Constabulary during the years of the Troubles

Trinity by Leon Uris

No list of books about The Troubles, or Northern Ireland in fact would be complete without the epic fiction, Trinity. This excellent, and indeed rollicking read gives an insight into nationalists, unionists and the Brits that painted Ireland’s history. 

Non-Fiction

Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles by David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeley and Chris Thornton

Over a seven-year period, the authors examined every death which was directly caused by the troubles. Their research involved interviewing witnesses, scouring published material, and drawing on a range of investigative sources to produce this study. They trace the origins of the conflict from the firing of the first shots, through the carnage of the 1970s and 1980s and up to the republican and loyalist ceasefires and beyond. All the casualties are remembered here—the RUC officer, the young soldier, the IRA volunteer, the loyalist paramilitary, the Catholic mother, the Protestant worker, and the new-born baby. (Amazon)

Rebel Hearts: Journeys Within the IRA's Soul by Kevin Toulis 

For ten years Kevin Toolis investigated the lives of the IRA soldiers who wage a secret battle against the British State

Killing Rage by Eamon Collins

Killing Rage is an unflinchingly honest account of a boy gone bad, small town violence and the terror of being part of the cause by former IRA member Eamonn Collins. "Collins left the IRA and turned his back on violence but he could not bear to leave Newry, where he was brutally killed in 1999." (David Keenan)

Nor Meekly Serve My Time: The H Block Struggle, 1976-1981

An incredible oral history of day-to-day life in the H Block and the definitive account of the hunger strikes, edited by Brian Campbell, Laurence McKeown and Felim O’Hagan. 

A Farther Shore: Ireland's Long Road to Peace by Gerry Adams

He's been imprisoned, shot at, denounced, shunned, and banned, yet Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams remains resolute in his belief that peace is the only viable option for the Irish people. Adams led the oldest revolutionary movement in Ireland on an extraordinary journey from armed insurrection to active participation in government. (Book description)

Armed struggle : a history of the IRA by Richard English

 Neither romanticizing the IRA nor condemning them out of hand, this is a balanced, definitive treatment of one of the world's leading revolutionary movements. (Book description)