Hateland
Bernard O'Mahoney with Mick McGovern

HATELAND covers O'Mahoney ten years spent living in South London. Fresh out of the Army he befriended a group of men who had grown up and still lived on the Stockwell Park Estate near Brixton.

Their resentment of refugees and immigrants who flooded their estate led them to involvement with right wing groups. The book catalogues not just violence against communist groups such as the Red Army Faction, but attacks on IRA troops out marches, "differences" with other local white youths and of course, the Brixton riots.

O'Mahoney also talks about his imprisonment after glassing a man during a visit to his hometown. Following his release, he returns to London where Saturdays are for football and with the local team being Millwall, there are no shortages of stories, from the riot at Luton Town to Millwalls adventures in their season in the first division.

O'Mahoney, facing a second prison sentence, goes on the run and lives for a while in Amsterdam before moving to Johannesburg in South Africa. It is the height of the Apartheid uprising and O'Mahoney and a friend work for a company providing security in nightclubs along the "murder mile" in Johannesburg.

Whilst in Africa, O'Mahoney's friend is arrested by anti terrorist officers after a car he was in explodes in South London. Police learn that a device in the vehicle had exploded prematurely. Following several incidents, O'Mahoney is remanded in custody to the notorious deepcliffe jail where capital punishment is regularly carried out.

O'Mahoney secures bail and manages to flee from Africa but is arrested when he enters the UK for the outstanding warrant against him. O'Mahoney is imprisoned and whilst serving his time, the worst prison riots in UK history take place.

Upon his release, he returns to London where, after witnessing first hand the horror of Apartheid he feels "uncomfortable" about the right wing groups he once supported.

Following O'Mahoney's decision to turn his back on his previous way of life in 1995, the final part of the book catalogues how O'Mahoney used his inside knowledge to expose members of the Ku Klux Klan who were trying to recruit members in the UK.

This involved corresponding with 60's guru Charles Manson and the Klan in Stone Mountain Georgia who in the process, unwittingly made O'Mahoney an honouree member. It also describes how O'Mahoney fooled the homophobic London nail bomber David Copeland into confessing his guilt following three bomb attacks in the Capital.

The book is not all politics, nor is it doom and gloom; much of it describes the sometimes-hilarious antics of O'Mahoney and his friends as they go about their everyday business.