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). 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. Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles. On the internet however a flourishing second-hand market has grown up around the book with copies on offer from anywhere between a few hundred pounds to over a thousand.

The looming prospect of a no-deal Brexit and the potential that has for reigniting the conflict combines in my mind with the fond memories I have of my visit to Northern Ireland two years ago to leave me with a feeling of grave foreboding and also hope that the foundations of peace laid over two decades ago and built upon since will bear up under the pressure of today's political blundering. 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. The senselessness of the killing in Ulster, in fact, is one great theme that the four authors identify in their introduction.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.

It is, in fact, that most disparaged genre, contemporary history, the essential first draft of some terrible events to which, in years to come, professional historians, poets, novelists and biographers will surely turn for the unvarnished truth.Now that the Troubles seem to be over, the publication of Lost Lives is perhaps the great monument for which the bloody history of Northern Ireland has been waiting”. It was a puzzling suggestion: their production company, Doubleband Films, has an immense creative reputation, but how could a book with no narrative be turned into a film?

But I am already very grateful to the authors for providing a resource that allows me to begin to form an understanding of a tremendously complex and bloody situation that not only raged for a long time on the very doorstep of my own homeland – and in which my country was explicitly involved – but which swallowed up friends and relatives of my own friends and relatives. I admit to having no personal connection with the events described at all, but I remember being very moved when we visited Belfast a couple of years ago and spent an afternoon in the museum which had at the time an exhibition detailing the history you describe. 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.In most cases it was obvious who should be included, but there were scores of doubtful cases over which we debated and agonised for many hours.

The 3,638 names do not appear at the tap of a screen, they come instead in a tome of 1,630 tightly printed pages. As the car began to drive away the same soldier aimed his automatic weapon at it but this time several people told him not to fire and he didn't. The book was written by four journalists, the late Seamus Kelters, David McKittrick, Brian Feeney and Chris Thornton, as an compilation of the Troubles related deaths across three decades.

The names of those killed during the Troubles and listed in Lost Lives are also read out every year at the Unitarian Church in Dublin. One of the tourists is Evan, taking an enforced holiday from his family and work in Belfast after breaking down after the death of his daughter in infancy. Mark Gordon, Co-Composer of Lost Lives said “Working with our fellow composer Neil Martin, the challenge set was to match the scale of vision for the film – from the stunning visual imagery through to the level of voice-over talent – it was clear from very early conversations with the directors of the film that they wanted a live fully-orchestral score that would work in sympathy with the stories of individuals whose lives were lost during The Troubles – some stories intimate, some centred around large scale defining moments of violence.