“Essential reading, from one of the best reporters in the North.” Irish Independent
“This is a most important book because we must remember and it is all too easy to forget. Susan McKay has handled grief and anger with great clearheadedness. In spite of the horror in this book, it is very hard to put aside.” Jennifer Johnstone
“One of the most invaluable, heart-wrenching, and poignant insights into the sheer wickedness, and human catastrope, of the Troubles.” Kevin Myers, Irish Independent
“A necessary book, which restored humanity to those among the dead who tend to be remembered in terms of statistics alone. Susan McKay has gone about her difficult task with bravery and finesse. Patricia Craig, Independent
“Tremendously moving…Anyone who wants to understand the secretarian conflict of Northern Ireland must examine the individual tragedies that go to make up the broader narrative. This is the grim task to which McKay so admirably applies herself…These fine books form part of a more noble cause, what Milan Kundera called the struggle of memory against forgetting.” Andrew Anthony, Observer
“Peace can only endure if the dead can finally be laid to rest. Bear in Mind These Dead is a moving and important contribution to that process. Derry Journal
” Susan McKay is a writer and journalist of courage, integrity and humanity…it is salutary to have a vivid reminder of the sheer awfulness of the slaughter…ensuring that the dead are not forgotten is done sensitively and objectively without any voyeurism or sensationalism…Susan McKay has produced another fine book of lasting value.” Martin Mansergh, Village Magazine
“An exemplary undertaking…a necessary book.” Independent
“[A] painstaking account…her journalism has always been brave, unflinching, intelligent and meticulously researched.” Ciaran Carson, Irish Times
Extracts from reviews of “Northern Protestants, and unsettled people”, (Blackstaff, 2000) and “Sophia’s Story”, (Gill and Macmillan, 1998)
“The problem that I had with this book was that it was very true and frightening and painful…I wish that every Protestant and every unionist would read it…Essentially a book like this, if it can be widely read – and I hope it is – [will allow] people to begin to recognise the degrees of denial that we have and the sense on perception we have of ourselves which is not shared by others.” David Ervine, BBC NI Hearts and Minds
“Susan McKay is one of Ireland’s finest journalists…This book should be read by the Sinn Féin leadership, Irish Ministers and officials in Dublin and Belfast who are trying to make the new model Ulster a reality for all”. Mary Holland, Observer
“This is a wonderful book – distressing and uplisfting, mysterious and informative…Her interviews are both penetrating and sensitive and her comments judicious.” Cal McCrystal, Glasgow Herald
“an elegantly written, comprehensive and illuminating portrait of Ireland’s Ulster unionist community…long overdue.” Tom McGurk, Sunday Business Post
“Susan McKay has dug deep into a damaged psyche…Instead of contributing yet another dusty treatise, she has interviewed both ordinary and extraordinary Protestants, who have been victims, perpetrators and observers of violence and let them speak for themselves…By asking intellignet questions and inserting her own perceptive commentaries, she has updated the insight of Dervla Murphy’s A Place Apart and provided a sister volume to Fionnuala O’Connor’s definitive work on Catholics.” Barry White, Belfast Telegraph
“Her writing is sharp, with a gripping sense of immediacy…interweaving a very vivid stream of interviews against a sharply observed background”. Annie Campbell, Ireland on Sunday
“She brings to this project the same easy elequence, eye for details and fierce compassion which marked her first book, Sophia’s Story.” Eamonn McCann, Sunday Tribune
“Northern Protestants is compelling reading…timely and courageous…For all its bleakness, it reveals the basic goodness of so many people in what outwardly seems such a sick society”. Sunday Tribune
“Sophia’s Story is a remarkable book about a truly remarkable young woman. Susan McKay tells Sophia’s story in a way which is compassionate without being sentimental.” Sunday Tribune
“One of the most acclaimed books published in Ireland…” RTE Bookshop