I passed this to a friend in Ireland and her response to the O'Donnell part is to ask what about Daniel O'Donnell. That'd be a very different story!
And chapter eight opens with a resistance man seeing five jumbo jets in three hours coming in with full loads of men who don't go in through customs. Alerted, our Buachailli estimate eight thousand presumed-Libuan soldiers may have entered the country on the quiet over two nights to head for pre-prepared caches. Anglo-Irish response being "oh shit we're not ready" (this includes no 'friendly' on the UN Security Council and "for the Palestinians the bulk of the UN is bloody friendly", which seems irrelevant if they're seizing neutral countries with gunfire and Libya's waving its willy around). MI6 trying to disappear all the 'white list' famous people they want out, nice bit of telling the Cardinal of the church what's about to happen as they want
him to stay as a symbolic figure & use the church as a bolster for resistance, and Irish embassies & consulates being quietly tipped off what's up and to get ready for a government-in-exile. (Though this means, again, you surely want to get the president out)
Sensible bit when a resistance commander, hearing it's definitely about to start, openly wonders if Britain's actually going to send enough help and if they're trained at all to fight professional soldiers. Which you would in that situation.
Now suddenly bombs are going off at factories and offices and mobs randomly attacking people and arson attacks, and people leaving "IRELAND FOR IRISH, FUCK OFF FOREIGNERS" messages to the press, which escalates to the point of the army being told to prepare to roll out to support the gardai, while the "New Irish Businessman's Association" mutter they'll have to use private security consultants and shut down the jobs until the violence stops - i.e. this is the 'false flag' to get tanks out fast, and the sudden job loss is the stick to get people to do as they're told. Mortgages and loans are suddenly being called in en masse as a frightener. "Garda" men are out in very obviously newly-painted armoured vehicles outside foreign-owned businesses. Meanwhile the SAS is trying to get as many resistance caches as possible prepped while the hostage raid goes on, and "Celt Force" just got told it's going in early and is lucky to have four weeks continued prep; Royal Navy preparing to blockade Ireland to cut off any further troop and kit arrivals. Random people also go "hey I can totally loot the high street during this" and compromised papers make sure you know this & Why Isn't The Government Doing Swift Action. A march-for-peace has violence caused by... someone.
This part, the gathering "fuck it's all on what can we do in time" is well done.
Actual quote in argument: "We haven't had a problem with Britain for seventy years. Look outside, Alan. That's your bloody Arabs causing all the trouble." I can buy an angry 1990s Irish guy saying one half of this.
The president suspends the Dail and brings in emergency powers, with compromised TD's voting it in - which really does seem another reason to 'disappear' the president. The faux-Garda seized the Irish Defence Force's bases and now hastily-painted Soviet/Arab kit is going around saying "WE ARE THE IRISH ARMY", while others now go into government buildings. Thousands are fleeing across the border, or on planes going
anywhere, or taking boats out wherever - that part is a bit eerie after Kabul in August, closer to the bone than Lunnon-Wood probably meant.
(The UN has Arab diplomats going "want some cheap oil or less oil" so Russia goes "INTERNAL IRISH MATTER" as the US and UK go "look it's clearly an invasion". I really can't see Russia post-Chechen independence going "sure, nothing about this sort of thing is something that worries us". This part is where it seems odd Britain doesn't go "what's that, a troop movement, DON'T MIND IF WE BOMB" while massing tanks at the border since the "nah nah it's an Irish thing" excuse is, in universe, flimsy as fuck)
And a random Irish farmer blocks the road against some trucks. "The resistance had begun."
"Palestine financiers" sounds like a dig whistle for Jews. Except no he means actual Palestinians.
The New Irish Businessman's Association says the false-flag bombs are "anti-Semitic", and I thought of this post.