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

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Author: David Mckittrick
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

9 reviews
Sales Rank: 45927

Media: Hardcover
Edition: 2Rev Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1648
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 6.4 x 2.4

ISBN: 184018504X
Dewey Decimal Number: 941
EAN: 9781840185041
ASIN: 184018504X

Publication Date: June 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW - ***Delivery usually * 2 - 3 * working days - From Aphrohead of SOUTHPORT, Lancs, uk *** . Priority Airmail used Worldwide on International orders. Thanks from all at Aphrohead.

Also Available In:

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

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.co.uk Review
We know that John Scullion, a Catholic shot dead in 1966, was the first. If only we could be sure that Charles Bennet, killed 33 years later, was the last. They are the opening and closing entries in this towering volume that documents the deaths of the 3600 men, women and children killed as a result of the troubles in Northern Ireland over the last 34 years. They are all here, IRA men and British soldiers, Loyalist terrorists and RUC officers, shoppers and tourists, mothers and children; those who made the news, those murdered unnoticed and unmourned by the outside world. In dispassionate, objective prose, the authors--three journalists and an academic--record the circumstances of every death and a detail about the dead. Here are the men who chose to fight, here are the people who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. And here, in 1998, close to what we can only hope must be the end, are the dead of Omagh. In their story, as in others in this catalogue of evil, the humanity of those who rush to help the injured comes in moving contrast to the inhumanity of those behind the bomb. This book--a brilliant combination of the journalistic and the scholarly--will stand as a memorial to the dead. Would that it never requires a sequel. --Kim Fletcher

Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Totally engrossing December 26, 2007
I received this book as a christmas present, much to my family's amazement. But as they browsed through it after our christmas dinner they were all drawn into it's web.

This book provides an account of each troubles related death, beginning in 1966 then year by year. Each year begins with a brief statement of fact about the state of play in that year and then proceeds to detail each person who lost their life, along with a factual based account of the circumstances.

It cleverly cross references other related entries. Before you know it you are caught up in the web going from an account of the hunger strikes to the shooting of three IRA members in Gibraltar to Michael Stone's attack on an IRA funeral and the subsequent murder of two soldiers at another funeral. And so it goes on.

One line from the introduction of this book summed in up for me it is "an account of what happens when a community decides to resolve its differences through violence".

I am sure there are ommissions, inaccuracies and mistakes but it is a must read for anyone interested in the history of the troubles and who wishes to discover more about the human cost of the conflict.

5 out of 5 stars

Not just a book - but a valuable memorial December 4, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I have to say that when I lift this book from it's space on the shelf, I always find it hard to stop reading it and to put it down.

As I read through the chronological order, I can often remember what I was doing at that time, and I can often recollect hearing about the victims, often briefly mentioned in dispassionate news broadcasts, with little time spent putting any of it into context. This is where the book re-dresses that inbalance. With even the smaller paragraph entries, the victim becomes someone - taken too early and before their time.

This is a masterful piece of work that deserves to be applauded. It also deserves to be in every school library in Northern Ireland.

5 out of 5 stars

Essential reading October 27, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I haven't finished this. I never will. It is too heart-rending. It lists 3697 victims of the Troubles, including not only those who died as a direct result of violent acts, but also others whose deaths, ostensibly due to natural causes, was obviously related to the violence.

The gut-wrenching thing is the sheer pointlessness of it all. The bloke who worked for the Queen as a royal coachman, out bird-watching one day, killed by the British army in crossfire in a battle with the IRA. The Unionist councillor, blown up in his car, on his way out of a meeting where he had asked fellow councillors to show a mark of respect to a Catholic victim of Loyalists a few days before.

I found I had forgotten so much of this. It's all terrible, all difficult to read. The worst of all are the stories of children like the little girl killed in the Omagh bomb at the age of 20 months, as her mother was buying her shoes for her uncle's wedding where she was to be a flower girl.

Grim though it is, I am really glad that the authors went to the trouble of compiling all this information. Putting everyone in context, all in one book, sorted only by chronological order, is a reminder that whatever the grand historical rights and wrongs, death is death and all who died left loved ones behind them. I wish this kind of survey could be done for other conflicts.

5 out of 5 stars

THE Troubles book. April 23, 2004
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

Having read the petty criticism of the reviewer who awarded this important, brilliant book only one star, I felt compelled to write and state that it is my belief that Lost Lives is perhaps the only truly essential book to have been published on the last tragic 30 years of the Northern Ireland troubles.

The authors of this mighty tome deserve all the praise that they have already received, and then some. Yes, there are inaccuracies and some mistakes, many of which have been corrected in ongoing editions, but this is the first (and only) book to date that has put the focus fairly and squarely on the human cost of that era from which we are all now, hopefully, trying to move on from.

My guess is that our one-star contributor has an axe to grind or is just plain jealous of the achievement displayed in this book but, in the face of the recent onslaught of publications about failed politicians, so-called major scandals and revelations of the Troubles, and quick profiteering from these tragic years by greedy publishers, Lost Lives remains the only book worth bothering with.

4 out of 5 stars Good for reference, but slightly innaccurate. February 6, 2003
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

I never thought of myself as being affected by the terrorist attack on our communities, but leafing through this book I was reminded of friends, relatives and just atrocious events I heard about whilst growing up in Belfast and North Down. I was shocked by just how many I knew!

The dispassionate but nonetheless gruesome account of the Omagh Bomb brought a lump to my throat, even though none of the victims were known to me.

I would have appreciated a note of how many of the murders remain unsolved. It would be a chilling statistic to know how many murderers remain to be caught, and are living amongst us.

My only gripe is that some of the dates are wrong.

Some errors are understandable. The subject is difficult one, filled with numerous facts and figures and now sadly out of date.