Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children Who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles

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The problem is that there has been so much that has come to light since the last edition was printed. The word 'murder' is not used in the book, even though it features in quotes and legal charges bought against individuals involved in the deaths that the book chronicles. Some accounts are fairly brief but most go into enough detail to really give you a good overview of that particular incident. I grew up in Belfast during the worst of the Troubles with gun battles in the street and being shot at on my way to school.

Above all, the sordid term “collateral damage” is not employed here: the fates of those innocents who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time are given each their due honour and care. The aim of the book is to provide a chronological list of all those who have died during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, either through direct violence or indirectly as a result of actions taken during this time. Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles. Records were scant and in the worst days of the Troubles, newspapers hadn't been able to keep up with the death toll - some killings were mentioned briefly, then forgotten in the next wave of violence.Perhaps its stark subtitle and colossal length were too off-putting: 'The stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the Northern Ireland Troubles'. The "jolting contrast" of the dialogue and imagery is noted with the "enduring beauty of the Irish landscape" set against "todays gleamingly secure pleasure palaces, built after civil war was replaced by something like peace". At more than 1,600 pages, a thickness greater than some editions of the Bible, and weighing something like an average roast, theft of the object involved substantially more than sliding it into your waistband and strolling out the door.

We agreed with the Cost of the Troubles group’s attitude on heart attack victims and suicides but we included only those road accident deaths which were known to have taken place during disturbances…. Authors David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney and Chris Thornton interviewed many witnesses and drew on previously published material to list the deaths of the 3,600 men, women and children killed as a result of the Troubles. The greatest single piece of scholarship in either journalism or historical studies that has ever been conducted in this country.Inspired by the book of the same name, it records the circumstances of every man, woman and child who died in a conflict - the Northern Irish 'Troubles. So as a guide to people murdered in Northern Ireland by groups and individuals whose ‘craft’ was forged in the Troubles, ‘Lost Lives’ is silent after 2008, and for me that should push the value down, not up.

Inspired by the book of the same name, LOST LIVES was written over seven years by five journalists, it is a book that uniquely records the circumstances of every single death in the conflict. Before joining the BBC he was a senior reporter with the Irish News where he specialised in security-related stories. Seamus Kelters, who worked for the BBC, is acknowledged as a major driving force behind the book, bolstering spirits if they were flagging. Eventually Mainstream Publishing in Edinburgh agreed to take a massive financial gamble to bring out the book. For anyone interested in Northern Ireland - or in the human cost of conflict anywhere - this is destined to be the defining work.Grace lives alone in Ballybrady, a little village on the sublimely beautiful east coast of Northern Ireland. For anyone interested in Northern Ireland - or in the human cost of conflict everywhere - this is destined to be the defining work. This book has been described as the greatest single piece of scholarship in either journalism or in historical studies that has ever been conducted in Ireland, in its encyclopedic detail, in its towering integrity and in its moral compassion. All the casualties are remembered here - the RUC officer, the young soldier, the IRA volunteer, the loyalist paramilitary, the Catholic mother, the Protestant worker, and the new-born baby.