This is the story of the Northern Ireland troubles told as never before. It is not concerned with the political bickering, but with the lives of those who have suffered and the deaths which have resulted from more than three decades of conflict. Over a seven-year period, the authors examined every death which was directly caused by the troubles. Their research involved interviewing witnesses, scouring published material, and drawing on a range of investigative sources to produce this study. They trace the origins of the conflict from the firing of the first shots, through the carnage of the 1970s and 1980s and up to the republican and loyalist ceasefires and beyond. 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.
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From Library Journal
McKittrick (Through the Minefield, LJ 2/15/00) and his coauthors are all experienced journalists of the North Ireland beat. This book is a 1600-page obituary, cataloging each life lost during "the Troubles," a huge undertaking whose results have garnered accolades in the U.K. and Ireland. The 3,638 deaths from 1966 to 2000 are chronologically numbered and indexed. Each entry includes the name, number, date of death, county of habitation, marital status, age, religion, occupation, and where appropriate affiliation (IRA, UVF, UDF, British Army, etc.). Assembled from official casualty lists, newspaper accounts, secondary sources, conversations, privately published pamphlets, and the authors' own notes, entries range from a few lines to virtual chapters. West Belfast is the deadliest neighborhood, and the IRA is responsible for almost half the deaths, though a sizable minority of the victims dies from their own blunders, e.g., premature bomb detonation. Like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, this book tallies the human cost of "the Troubles" in one place. To say that the book is sad or numbing would be an understatement. It belongs in every public and academic library.
Robert C. Moore, Raytheon, Sudbury, MA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Robert C. Moore, Raytheon, Sudbury, MA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"The greatest single piece of scholarship in either journalism or historical studies that has ever been conducted in this country. In its encyclopedic detail, in its towering integrity and in its moral compassion, it could be the most influential study of Irish history that has ever been presented" -- Kevin Myers Irish Times "There is not even space to do justice to the scholarly comprehensiveness, the magisterial even-handedness or the moral integrity of this astonishing book" -- Robert McCrum, Literary Editor The Observer "The scrupulous, austere, secular litany that is Lost Lives is the greatest act of remembrance that has yet emerged. It restores, with its economical but vivid detail, the humanity behind the statistics" -- Fintan O'Toole Irish Times "A devastating account of the price paid for peace. Read it and weep. I know I did, and without apology to the cynics" -- Fergal Keane, Bbc Correspondent "The most influential reference book in Irish history" Irish News
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33 of 36 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heartbreaking
Jan 11 2000
By smccrea@rohanis.com
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Perhaps the best tribute possible for the people whose lives have been wasted over the last 30 years in Northern Ireland.
The only pity is that the sheer numbers make it impossible to also tell the stories of all of the victims who who survived but had their lives shattered.
This book should be supplied as an antidote to those who find terrorism 'romantic' or seek to justify violence from any side in Ireland.
Many of the stories would make a stone weep; this is not an easy book to read. Nevertheless it is essential to anyone who wants an insight into the real cost of the troubles.
35 of 39 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The truth is always stark, but not usually as stark as this.
Dec 30 1999
By "spencer@oceanfree.net"
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This is not a book for the faint of heart. Lost Lives is basically a compiled list of the victims of the Northern Ireland Troubles and gives the detail of their actual death, who they were, and what they were doing at the time. It would be easier to read the writings of Dante in a single sitting than it would be to spend more than a half an hour reading these most tragic tales.
If you care at all about people, this book will affect you deeply, because the majority of people listed here are merely guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time or perhaps their beliefs shading differently to their neighbors.
If you have ever endorsed or supported any form of discrimination, bigotry, or military action, and you consider yourself a rational individual, this book will surely make you reconsider your views on such matters.
The authors of this massive and heartrending work will be seen in the course of time to have made a most worthwhile contribution toward consolidating the Irish Peace Process.
Essential and worthwhile reading for any scholar of History.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must for all survivors of the Troubles
May 28 2013
By Gerard Duggan
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is not a book to take to the beach. It will be of interest to those of us who like me lived in Northern Ireland for at least part of the "Long War" as the IRA called it. It reminds us of all those thousands of ordinary people who died and who but for this book would be remembered only by family and friends. There are countless names of people listed here whom I had never heard of as we'll as all those I knew personally or who were neighbours. The book contextualises each death by allowing us to see its relevance or not to the overall political and military situation at the time. In this way we can often see the pointlessness of individual deaths, deaths of small people who were killed not for any grand cause but because they happened to be of one religion or another or in the wrong place at the wrong time. There were also those whose killers chose because they wanted to kill them for purely personal reasons. Listed here are the victims of the fanatics and psychopaths who used the Troubles as an excuse or justification for the killings they would have carried out at any time because they enjoyed killing.
This is a book to be passed on to the next generation who have already largely forgotten what their fathers and mothers endured for over 30 years. Hopefully it deters them from ever allowing the same conditions to re emerge where so many died just because they were there.
This is a book to be passed on to the next generation who have already largely forgotten what their fathers and mothers endured for over 30 years. Hopefully it deters them from ever allowing the same conditions to re emerge where so many died just because they were there.
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