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The statistics reveal the intensity of the conflict in the early 1970s, with just over half of all troubles victims dying prior to 1977. More people were killed in 1972, the worst year of the troubles, than in the years 1991-99.

— Lost Lives by David McKittrick (Page 1,476)

1. July 12, 1998 Richard Quinn, Antrim Civilian, Catholic. 10, schoolboy

He was the eldest of three brothers all killed when loyalists petrol bombed their family home in Carnany Park, a predominantly Protestant area of Bally-money.

— Lost Lives by David McKittrick (Page 1,434)

1. January 30, 1993 Julie Statham, Tyrone Civilian, Catholic, 20, single, student

A student at Queen's University in Belfast, she took her own life less than a month after her boyfriend, Diarmuid Shields, and his father, Patrick Shields, were killed by the UVF. Shortly before taking a fatal overdose she wrote: 'When they killed my darling. they killed me too. I have tried to cope for an entire month. Despite my outward appearance I am dead. I may be breathing and moving but what use is that when I don't have any emotions left inside me? When two shots were fired my life ended. I may, at one stage, have had lots to live for, but 27 days ago everything that mattered was snatched from my grasp never to be replaced. You all mean the world to me, but I couldn't let you watch me being miserable. So this seemed a sensible solution - well it did to me. Let me also tell you Mum and Dad-how very much I love you and how very sorry I am for the pain I've caused.'

Mrs Christine Statham, the dead woman's mother, later set up a fund-raising scheme to enable a bereavement counselling group to establish a local branch. Mrs Statham said: 'I do feel there should be immediate help available for relatives of victims. I am not saying Julie would be alive today if there was a counselling service but, my God, it might have helped her.' Her daughter had been trying to enrol for counselling with CRUSE, the voluntary organisation which helps the bereaved.

The organisation telephoned with an appointment just hours after her body was found in her bed at her Dungannon home. Her distressed father answered the CRUSE telephone call and told them: 'I am sorry but Julie is dead. No local counselling service was available so Julie had to approach the group in Belfast, and due to their workload they were unable to arrange an appointment until February. Many hundreds of people, including university colleagues and friends from her former school. St Patrick's Academy, attended the requiem mass for the young woman in St Patrick's Church, Dungannon.

— Lost Lives by David McKittrick (Page 1,310)

1. February 17, 1978 Thomas Neeson, Down Civilian, Protestant, 52, married, 3 children, car salesman

He was one of 12 people, 7 of them women, killed when the IRA left a firebomb at La Mon House, a country hotel beyond the outskirts of east Belfast. The incident is regarded as one of the most horrific of the troubles, with many of the victims burned beyond recognition by a fireball. More than 30 others were injured in the attack.

All of the victims were Protestants and those who died included three married couples. All who died were attending the annual dinner-dance of the Irish Collie Club. When the bomb went off they were dining together in the restaurant's Peacock Room. Most of those killed were seated close to the window where the device was placed, six of them at the two tables close to the point of the explosion.

Thomas Neeson, who came from Mourneview Crescent in Lisburn, died together with his mother-in-law, Sally Cooper. They were buried at Ballymarlon Churchyard near Ballymena following separate services. His three daughters wept uncontrollably during his service. One of them saw a picture of him in a newspaper and said: 'Daddy has died and has just gone to heaven.'

The device, described as a blast incendiary, had been hung on the grille of a window with a meat-hook. When it went off it produced an effect similar to napalm. The device consisted of an electrical initiating system, an explosive charge in a steel container and at least four containers of petrol. An expert said later that trials carried out to simulate the effect had produced a fireball more than 60 feet in diameter.

A witness told the inquest of hearing an explosion, seeing a ball of flame and feeling intense heat. He said some people were in flames, the lights went out, and there were a lot of fumes, adding: 'I was on fire and I dropped to the floor and rolled in a ball trying to get air.'

— Lost Lives by David McKittrick (Page 745 - 746)

1. April 4, 1974 Paul Anthony Reid, England Soldier, Signals Regiment, 17

He was one of ten people killed when a 50 lb IRA bomb exploded on a coach on the M62 in England. The 11th victim, Stephen Whalley, died three days later from his injuries. The coach was carrying many service families. It belonged to a family country coach company and was being driven by one of the owners on the journey from Manchester to Catterick Camp and an RAF base at Leeming, near Darlington.

There were 56 passengers on the coach and nine of the dead were soldiers. The wife and young children of one of the soldiers also died in the explosion. Those killed had been sitting in the rear seats of the coach, above the luggage compartment where the bomb had been placed.

A surviving soldier who was blown out of the emergency door described the scene: 'It was just a mangled wreck. I attended to a girl of about 17 who was 200 yards back up the road from where the coach stopped. Her legs were injured. She was hysterical and kept saying. "My God, the floor just opened up and I fell through." I covered her up and tried to keep her warm. Other witnesses described seeing bodies strewn along the carriageway. The coach travelled more than 200 yards before the driver could bring it to a halt.

A police constable told the inquest he found mutilated bodies lying on the motorway and inside the coach, adding: 'I have never seen anything like it and I never want to see anything like it again.' A superintendent said the explosion was in the luggage boot underneath the rear seat. He estimated it was a bomb containing 50 lb of high explosive, adding that the coach was travelling at between 50 and 60 mph when the device went off. A pathologist said x-rays had shown that rivets from the coach had been blasted into some of the victims.

In February 1975 a memorial plaque bearing the names of the victims was unveiled at a nearby service station on the motorway. One of the organisers said people from all over Britain and Northern Ireland had sent donations. Around 50 relatives of the victims attended the ceremony.

— Lost Lives by David McKittrick (Page 434 - 435)

1. February 25, 1973 William Gordon Gallagher, L/Derry city Civilian, Catholic, 9

He died in Altnagelvin Hospital after an IRA landmine exploded as he played in the back garden of his home at Lecnan Gardens on the Creggan estate. A postman who was among the first on the scene. said: 'I saw a young boy crawling along the ground covered in blood. He looked up at me and said. "Help me, mister, I'm hurt." Neighbours and a nurse tried to comfort the child as they waited for an ambulance, a local priest administering the last rites.

— Lost Lives by David McKittrick (Page 333)

1. October 7, 1972 Alex Moorehead. Tyrone Civilian, Protestant, 16

A partially deaf youth, he was killed near his home in Newtownstewart by the UDR, having failed to stop when called on to do so. The journalist Chris Ryder, in his book The Ulster Defence Regiment wrote: "After an explosion near a cinema at Newtownstewart, a mobile UDR patrol mounted a follow-up operation. When they reached the scene they saw a man climbing a 15-feet high security wall at the back of the cinema. When he failed to respond to three challenges, one of the patrol opened fire, killing him. It turned out that the youth was almost totally deaf. His father said he did not blame the UDR soldier who killed his son. In a cruel twist of fate, one of the members of the patrol, a sergeant, was an uncle of the dead youth, although he did not fire the fatal shots."

— Lost Lives by David McKittrick (Page 278)

1. August 18, 1972 Ronald Rennie Layfield, West Belfast Soldier, King's Regiment, 24, single

He was shot by the IRA as he manned a checkpoint at the corner of the Falls Road and Beechmount Avenue, hit in the head by a single bullet. His mother said she had experienced a premonition of his death. The junction where the soldier was standing lies in a slight dip on the main Falls Road. The fatal shot was apparently fired from higher ground opposite the Beehive Bar at Broadway. killing Kingsman Layfield almost instantly.

[...]

His mother later told reporters: 'He loved the army life abroad but the bloodshed in Northern Ireland horrified him. He used to have terrible nightmares. He used to say how horrible it was to fire rubber bullets at crowds, trying to hurt people. He loved peace too much to bear the fighting. Nine months ago, when the Ulster posting was announced, he was talking about buying himself out of the army. But he said he had to go to Northern Ireland because he couldn't chicken out of his duty. He gave me the £200 he had saved to keep in a bank for him. He sent for it last week.'

— Lost Lives by David McKittrick (Page 250 - 251)

1. April 22, 1972 Francis Rowntree, West Belfast Civilian, Catholic, 11, schoolboy

He was the first of three people who died after being struck by rubber bullets fired by the security forces. A further 14 fatalities were caused by the plastic bullets which later replaced the original missiles.

— Lost Lives by David McKittrick (Page 179)