Local attorney Dan Lawton’s first nonfiction book, “Above the Ground: A True Story of The Troubles in Northern Ireland,” tells the story of Irish refugee Kevin Barry Artt during the Irish “Troubles.”
The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted from the late 1960s to 1998. The conflict is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which ended most of the violence of the Troubles. The agreement restored self-government to Northern Ireland on the basis of “power sharing,” and it included the early release of paramilitary prisoners, followed by demilitarization.
Artt, charged with possession of firearms and the 1978 murder of the Deputy Governor of Maze (he was ultimately cleared) and numerous other IRA political prisoners had been held in the supposedly escape-proof HM Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. They fled the facility in what has become known as “The Great Escape.” Artt and three other escapees successfully escaped only to be arrested in the United States between 1992 and 1994. They all fought lengthy legal battles against extradition.
In 2000 the British government withdrew extradition requests for Artt and two others, who officially remained fugitives. But in 2003, Artt and his colleagues were finally informed by the British government that they were no longer being “actively pursued.”
“Above the Ground” is a gripping account of one of the darkest periods in Northern Ireland’s history, a tale of survival and redemption for an innocent man (Artt). Themes of injustice, perseverance, and hope emerge in the story of Artt’s ultimate escape and struggle against an unjust legal system and two mighty legal adversaries – the British and U.S. governments.
Lawton, a Crown Point resident who grew up in Orange County, is a practicing attorney with the law firm of Klinedinst San Diego. He learned about Artt and the Troubles “from scratch” while in college, and the drama of the Maze prison escape and its aftermath piqued his interest because he felt “the American media didn’t do a good job” of explaining who the Irish opposition leaders to British rule were, and what exactly they’d done. “Men (prisoners) were starving themselves to death, and why was (Prime Minister) Thatcher’s government insisting on treating them the way they did?” asked Lawton adding, “All of that was new to me. How does an innocent man get falsely convicted?”
“One of the goals with this book is to try and explain the Troubles to an American audience in a way they can understand without being overwhelmed with the alphabet soup of the jargon used describing the Troubles,” continued Lawton. “It can be confusing if not explained well. I also think some of the issues I deal with in this book are timeless.”
Extensive research was done by Lawton on his first book. “I traveled to Ireland several times to collect documents and interview witnesses,” he said. “I looked at every page of all of the court records in both of the legal cases – 125 banker’s boxes. All the interviews, the review, and analysis of all the documents took some time.”
What does Lawton want readers to come away with from reading his inaugural novel? “I want to tell people a unique story about an innocent man who was unjustly imprisoned in a high-security prison in Europe, and ultimately was vindicated against all odds,” he concluded. “It’s truly a David and Goliath story, one that has timeless elements.”
BOOK SIGNING
On Thursday, Sept. 7 at 7:30 p.m., at Warwick’s Books, 7812 Girard Ave., Dan Lawton will sign and read from his book, where readers of Irish history, true crime, and courtroom drama will learn the story of Irish refugee Kevin Barry Artt, whose life parallels the history of the modern Troubles.
