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

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This book tells the story of every single death caused by the Troubles in Northern Ireland and England. The first one on 11 June 1966 (John Scullion, aged 28, single, storeman) all the way through to the last, on 8 May 2006 (Michael McIlveen, aged 15, schoolboy – number 3712). 2006 is when the last edition was published. There have been a few more deaths since then, but not that many. A handful. Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles Lost Lives: The Stories of men, women and children who died as a result of the Northern Ireland troubles, (4th Ed.). Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing Company. ... [] - [Book] covers some of the real tragedies in the wee province and even worse some of the ones we have forgotten about

Lost Lives: The Stories of men, women and children who died as a result of the Northern Ireland troubles, (3rd Ed., 1 June 2004). Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing Company. ... [6894] - [Book] The authors - three of them Belfast-born and the fourth an American - are award-winning journalists. Over a seven-year period, they examined every single death which was directly caused by the troubles. Their research has seen them interview withnesses, scour published material and draw on a huge range of investigative sources to produce a work of epic proportions. Never before has conflict anywhere in the world been subjected to such meticulous scrutiny. Mike McCahill (16 October 2019). "Lost Lives review – requiem for victims of the Troubles". The Guardian . Retrieved 1 February 2021.

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Gareth Cross (22 January 2021). "Lost Lives: NI public records office working through archive material relating to rare book on Troubles deaths". The Belfast Telegraph . Retrieved 1 February 2021. A reporter from the Irish Times named Kevin Myers was in the middle of it. He was in a house and was shot at by some sniper from a house across the road. A soldier who was down in the street shot at the sniper and the reporter thought that saved his life. He ran down to the street to get away from the madness. He saw three kids throwing stones at the soldiers from an alley between two houses. He told them there was shooting going on and they didn't believe him, they hadn't noticed it. Then the soldier who had just shot at the sniper thought there was another sniper in the alley where the kids were, and fired again. The film also weaves high-end cinematography, archive film and a score written by composers Neil Martin, Mark Gordon, Richard Hill and Charlie Graham. It was recorded by the Ulster Orchestra and the Codetta Choir. This work may be written objectively but as you read it you cannot help getting sympathetic, sad, angry and frustrated at the immense lose of life that went on year after year despite all communities condemning death after death after death. This work shows that war of any kind is not only needless but wastes lives on all sides whether the people affected are involved or not and shows how terror and fear cripple communities into submission despite their resistance.

There may be some who believe that more detail should have been given to provide more context for each death, but had the authors done this the work would have lost it's poignancy and impact as the individual deaths got lost in the political and religious miasma. 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. And that is exactly what the authors have done, without prejudice or bias, they have produced an epic work that cuts through all the scandals, finger-pointing and accusations that dominate all the other works written about the Troubles and simply states who, where and how without trying to assess the why (which lets face it no-one has ever really managed to answer properly). The authors researched the book for seven years prior to its publication in 1999. [2] The first edition of the book details the lives of 3,636 people who died as a result of The Troubles from 1966 to 1999. The information detailed includes the "name, date of death, location, profession, religion, age and marital status, together with a brief summary of the circumstances of the particular death". [1]The book was published by the Scottish publishers Mainstream Publishing of Edinburgh. It was reprinted in 2008. [3] The book was out of print by December 2020, and Chris Thornton said that he and the surviving authors did not wish the book to be reprinted. [2] Thornton said that much more material had become available since the book was published and he and the other authors had hoped to update it but no publishers were interested. [2] Thornton said that he and the other authors were opposed to any potential governmental involvement in the reprinting of the book as it would "leave it open to political influence". The death of co-author Seamus Kelters also affected them emotionally. Thornton said that "It's wonderful that the book is still being recognised as important...But it's in the past". [2] John Breslin (7 December 2020). "Lost Lives: Calls to make rare book on the Troubles available to the public". The Belfast Telegraph . Retrieved 1 February 2021. So – 3,712 death over a period of 40 years. From three year old Jonathan Ball, an English kid killed in Warrington, a town in England, when the IRA planted bombs in litter bins in a shopping mall (a 12 year old boy was also killed in that one) all the way to 91 year old Martha Smylie who was killed by a UDA bomb which was planted at the Imperial Hotel in Belfast. The bomb damaged her old peoples’ home next door and this old lady was badly injured, and died the following day. The film was directed by Michael Hewitt and Dermot Lavery. Hewitt said he felt the actors were not just "lending their voices but giving their voice in support of what the film represents for us" which was "A reminder of the terrible loss, in the hope that we do not repeat the mistakes of our past". Lavery said that the book was "...a riposte, a challenge to all of us, for allowing this terrible loss of life, all this grief and heartache in the place where we lived" and that "You just need to hold the book in your hand and feel the weight of that loss". [5] a b c d e f g h i Noel McAdam (February 2020). "Lost Lives documentary based on book of all Troubles killings 'raw & emotional' ". The Belfast Telegraph . Retrieved 1 February 2021.