David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

cleared, the army launched a massive
house-to-house search. Disobedience
was met with firm and immediate
punishment. The next morning, a
triumphant Freeland took two Protestant
government officials and a pack of
journalists on a tour of the neighborhood
in the back of an open flatbed truck,
surveying the deserted streets like—as
one soldier later put it—“the British Raj
on a tiger hunt.”
The British Army went to Northern
Ireland with the best of intentions. The
local police force was overwhelmed,
and they were there simply to help—to
serve as a peacekeeper between
Northern Ireland’s two warring