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John Taylor, Minister of Home Affairs in the last Unionist government of Northern Ireland, describes in fascinating detail the divisions within Ulster unionism in the late 1960's, why he supported the "O'Neill Must Go" campaign against the then prime minister Terence O'Neill, the riots of August 1969 and the feeling at RUC headquarters that the Irish Army might enter Northern Ireland at any time, and the introduction of internment in August 1971, which he says he knew nothing about.
He also describes being shot 10 times by the Official IRA in Armagh in February 1972, the Fall of Stormont in March 1972, when he was brought from hospital to the balcony of Parliament Buildings before tens of thousands, his fear of civil war, and why he supported the UWC strike against powersharing in May 1974.
Taylor also says he has no regrets about not becoming leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, and says he would not have taken the risks that former Unionist party leader David Trimble did, because he was let down by Sinn Fein. While there are quite bitter divisions between Unionist and Nationalists in Northern Ireland, he says he thinks Northern Ireland will stay within the United Kingdom and there will not be a United Ireland.
