Anger at previous attempts to portray the British soldier. Anger at the violence and the hatred that became part of a way of life. Anger at the misrepresentation of the facts. Books about Northern Ireland seem inevitably to turn into political analyses or into novels that stretch credibility to the limit. Contact is unashamedly about myself. It is about my own emotions, thoughts and reactions during two tours with the British Army in Northern Ireland. Both tours were with a Regiment both famous and infamous, praised and hated but never ignored: The Parachute Regiment. My Battalion, 3 Para, has had many tours in the province. This book is about two of those tours; one in Belfast in 1973, and the second in Crossmaglen in 1976. The events described in the book are real. Everything recorded here actually occurred. In order to bring the narrative to life, I have in some cases put words into the mouths of individuals when they were in fact spoken by others.
