Holy War in Belfast

by Andrew Boyd

The disturbances were savage, repeated and prolonged…
Winston Churchill

First published in September 1969, Andrew Boyd’s Holy War In Belfast was, and still is, the only history ever written about sectarian conflict in the city of Belfast. In what has often been described as “a remarkable record:’ Boyd brings alive the Street mobs and agitators of the past, and presents them so vividly that they seem almost to be contemporary. This is a book full of victims and villains, and brave men trying to uphold the law against the inciters of anarchy.
When Holy War In Belfast first appeared, West Belfast was ablaze and ramshackle barricades protected the people of one ghetto from those of another; but readers of the book were amazed to find they were witnessing nothing new. Andrew Boyd had traced sectarian violence in Belfast back to the middle years of the nineteenth century, indeed earlier, and had shown, by quotations from official reports, constabulary records, newspapers, and the reminiscences of police officers, magistrates, doctors of medicine, and clergymen, that mob violence recurred, over and over again.
This new edition of Holy War In Belfast has been extended to describe, in detail, what happened during the riots of 1893, 1912, 1920-22, and 1935. A final chapter summarises events since 1969.