Reviews - The God Squad
The real past—not some David Hamilton version— assails us from every page of this book, a nasty world of political, cultural, and religious sterility. If you are perplexed by present day Ireland with its unique mixture of European liberalism, Catholic intolerance, and nationalist violence, read this book, because it was out of this past that our Irish present grew.
- Ronán M Conroy - British Medical Journal
full review
Its value as a historical document apart, Paddy Doyle’s book also illustrates an important psychological
truth: that your equilibrium depends on your ability to own your own history, however awful.
- Justin Keating, former Irish Government Minister
full review
The image which gripped the nation from the opening programme of the series was of a brother beating and sexually abusing a boy in front of his class. The opening chapter of Paddy Doyle's The God Squad, published in 1988, contained a similar account of a public beating of him by a nun. Later in the book he described being sexually abused by the same nun. Why did this not fill us with the same horror as States of Fear?
- John Waters - Irish Times
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