August 1969 provided a pivotal event in the collective experience of the Catholics in Northern Ireland after the Unionist Pogrom of that month set off a defensive insurrection. Things would never be the same again. In that hour, the Catholic community transformed its situation, turning its position from one of subordination to that of equality. The Insurrection turned into a 28 year war that set out to solve once and for all the political predicament that the Catholic community of the North had been sealed into back in 1920-21 by Westminster. That was when Britain set up the perverse political construct known as 'Northern Ireland', and generated an eternal conflict between its two communities, and in which the 'minority' always came off worst. Volume One in this series, called Catastrophe, gives an account of what happened between 1914 and 1968. Volume Two, called Resurgence, explains the rest of the story, putting military and political developments in context. -- Publisher description.