Richard O'Rawe

In Ricky O'Rawe's debut novel, as audacious and well executed as Ructions' plan to rob the National Bank itself, a new voice in Irish crime writing has been unleashed that will shock, surprise and thrill as he takes you on a white-knuckle ride through Belfast and Dublin's criminal under-belly. Enter the deadly world of tiger kidnapping, money laundering and kangaroo courts; supermodels, super-ambitions, love, and the one damn thing destined to bring it all crashing down...greed. This is a true story. The events depicted took place in Belfast in 2004. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred --

Northern Heist

"Richard O'Rawe was a senior IRA prisoner in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh prison. One of the 'Blanketmen', he took part in the dirty protests that led to the hunger strikes of the early 1980s. Now O'Rawe gives his personal account of those turbulent times that saw British and Irish governments entering unprecedented negotiations with the IRA Army Council and the prisoners themselves. Passionate, disturbing and controversial, Blanketmen is a landmark book in the cruel history of Northern Ireland." -- Back cover.

An Untold Story of the H-block Hunger Strike

Blanketmen

"I clamor for the next installment of Richard O’Rawe’s rollicking series of heist novels featuring James 'Ructions' O’Hare." — Sarah Weinman, The New York Times Book Review A fast-paced, suspenseful thriller based on one of the biggest (and still unsolved) bank-robberies in history, written by a former IRA bank robber. Nobody robs banks in Belfast without the IRA getting a cut -- not even former Provo James 'Ructions' O'Hare. But when word gets around O'Hare may be up to something, the pressure from the IRA begins. Ructions' trusts his crack squad of former paramilitary compadres, and has full confidence in his audacious plan: To literally empty the biggest bank in Belfast by kidnapping the families of two employees - known as a "tiger" kidnapping -- in order to force them to help Ructions and his crew get into the bank's vault. But keeping the plan -- and the money -- from the IRA is another plan entirely, one requiring all Ruction's cunning and skill. In this stunning debut novel, as audacious and well-executed as Ructions' plan to rob the National Bank itself, Richard O'Rawe -- a former IRA bank robber himself - unleashes a story that will shock, surprise and thrill as he takes you on a white-knuckle ride through Belfast's criminal underbelly. Enter the deadly world of tiger kidnappings, kangaroo courts, money laundering, drug deals and double-crosses.

Ructions O'Hare returns in a thriller — based on one of history's greatest unsolved heists — pitting him against the IRA, Interpol, and neo-Nazis . . . When WWII ended, the allies discovered that a huge amount of gold bullion plundered by Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering had gone missing. Some believed the gold had been hidden in a train box car in Poland. Others that it was secreted in Lake Toplitz in the Austrian Alps. And a few thought it was buried in the Republic of Ireland, which was neutral during the war. When ex-IRA soldier Ructions O'Hare stumbles on a piece of Nazi memorabilia once owned by Goering, he begins to think that those who suspect the gold was in Ireland just might be on to something. But for Ructions to return to Ireland is easier said than done. For a start, the IRA is after him for not paying them a cut from a huge bank robbery he carried out in Belfast. And then there's the Neo-Nazis, who believe that Goering's gold rightfully belongs to them, and who are happy to kill anyone who gets in their way. And as Ructions gathers clues to the gold's location and, as his many adversaries realize he's getting closer, it's as if a noose is tightening around his neck...

Goering's Gold

"One of the most important books to emerge from the Troubles, and definitely the most courageous."--The Sunday Times ***"Richard O'Rawe deserves praise for charging one of the most cynical leaderships anywhere in this island with manipulating the courage and determination of the hunger strikers."--The Guardian ***After the recent release of historical state and personal papers, Richard O'Rawe's courageous statements, ten years after Blanketmen's initial publication, stand vindicated. At the center of O'Rawe's book lies the disclosure that six of the ten H-Block hunger strikers starved themselves to death in vain, as an offer from the British Government was on the table that could have ended the strike after four of them had died. In this passionate and controversial book, O'Rawe reveals the rationale and motives behind the negotiations and strategy changes that eventually brought about the Peace Process. [Subject: Irish Studies, History, Politics]

Richard O'Rawe

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