Victims of the Northern Ireland Troubles have been remembered at a moving tribute in Dublin.
The names of the 3,500 who died during the Troubles were read out at a four hour ceremony at the Dublin Unitarian Church.
The annual commemoration, now in its fourth year, took over three hours. It is the only such religious service in Ireland to remember the dead from all sides of the community.
Spokesman Andy Pollak, from the Centre for Cross Border Studies, told the Irish Times that the reading of names illustrates powerfully the terrible, random nature of death in war and civil conflict.
“All human life and death is in this mournful list,” he said.
“British soldiers, IRA volunteers, loyalist paramilitaries, Ulster policemen and women, gardai (police), part-time UDR men, prison officers, civil rights marchers and judges are remembered, alongside the innocent victims of all ages killed in cities, towns and villages across Northern Ireland, the Irish republic and Britain.”
The paper reports that the list starts alphabetically with Anthony Abbott, a soldier from Manchester shot dead by the IRA in Ardoyne in North Belfast in 1976.
It finishes with William and Letitia Younger, an elderly Protestant man and his daughter, who were beaten, stabbed and shot by intruders in their home in Ligoniel in 1980.
The list begins in 1966 with John Patrick Scullion, a Catholic storeman shot by the UVF in Belfast.
The final victim was Catholic PSNI constable Ronan Kerr who was murdered in a car bomb attack by dissidents in Omagh, Co Tyrone, last April.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.IrelandNorth | Apr 11, 2012, 08:49 AM EDT
Geez, StevenStar! Another psychotic episode. Please stop SHOUTING. Immigrants are inward migrants, and contextually incorrect if you're not in America. The year is 2012, not 1212, though your political paradigm are undoubtedly of that epoch. It won't work, BillyBoy! The game's up. We know you're an OrangeMan masquerading as an Irish Nationalist to drive a wedge between Ireland and Irish-America. The Brits want out of the swamp that is NI. Let them go.
sirpeter | Apr 08, 2012, 06:49 AM EDT
Hey!! Leave STEVENSTAR alone.You're all upsetting him.Can't you see it's not easy when you have to type with your head.
STEVENSTAR | Apr 07, 2012, 05:51 PM EDT
@@@@@@@@bear022013 | Apr 07, 2012, 12:51 PM EDT Were it not for the IRA lad,you wou would be an Englishman.Take it easy,you sound angry/Do you have your health?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THE ENGLISH MATE I BET 100% YOU ARE AMERICAN .... CAUSE YOU PEOPLE SEEM TO HAVE MORE PROBLEMS WITH THE ENGLISH THEN WE IRISH HAVE ... HALF MY FAMILY ARE ENGLISH AND MY PARTNER IS ENGLISH SO U KEEP YOUR IGNORANT COOMENTS TO YOURSELF ,,,
ciaradexy | Apr 07, 2012, 02:06 PM EDT
Bear, if it were not for the English, you'd be Irish. That explains a lot really! Steven, its not 1212 either.
STEVENSTAR | Apr 07, 2012, 10:07 AM EDT
MY GOD WHY DO YOU KEEP GOING ON AND ON ABOUT THE TROUBLES IN NORTHER IRELAND ITS NEVER ENDING YOU AMERICANS SEEM OBSESSED WITH IT OVER THERE... GIVE IT A REST WE HAVE MOVED ON NOW... AND ITS A WELL KNOWN FACT OOVER HERE THAT WHEN THERE WAS TROUBLE IT WAS THE AMERICANS FINANCING TEH IRA ... WHAT IS IT ABOUT AMERICANS THEY SEEM FACINATED WITH WARS ???? BEFORE YOU HAVE A GO AT ME .. REMEMBER IM IRISH BORN AND BRED AND I LIVE HERE AND IM AN IRISH CITIZEN SO I HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO SAY WHAT I THINK MORE SO TEHN SOMEONE WHO IS CLAIMING IRISH ROOTS CAUSE THEIR GRANNY IMMIGRATED TO AMERICA A 100 YEARS AGO...YOU PEOPLE NEED TO WAKE UP ITS NOW THE YEAR 1212 AND WE HAVE MOVED ON .. YOU NEED TO MOVE ON ALSO .. YOU WOULD NEVER GET THESE SILLY ARTICLES BEEN WRITTEN IN NEWSPAPERS OVER HERE ... GOOD LUCK ..
sirpeter | Apr 07, 2012, 07:28 AM EDT
Bythebay.Well Done!! You opened your mouth and removed all doubt about my comment.
ciaradexy | Apr 07, 2012, 06:58 AM EDT
'Ulster' troubles? Since when is Ulster part of the UK?
aloistmartin | Apr 06, 2012, 09:41 PM EDT
Look away, Look away, Ireland
seanomelb | Apr 06, 2012, 06:07 PM EDT
Typical, bigoted Bythebay selective in who should be remembered,turning a remembrance day into a political negative.Seanmor I hope all the dead were remembered.Sirpeter makes a fair point and we know where the intransigence would come from.
GeorgeDillon | Apr 06, 2012, 04:58 PM EDT
Seanmor: I am glad you bring to mind that gentleman Turnley. I'd bet my Easter egg that bythebay never heard of him. I knew people who had known him, and they compared him to Roger Casement. You are quite right that the South was utterly apathetic to deaths such as his. In this particular case, the fact that he was building a political alternative to the SDLP meant that he was persona non grata with the Southerners.
Seanmor | Apr 06, 2012, 04:52 PM EDT
I'm inclined to agree with George Dillon who states that this event should have been done in Belfast, not Dublin. All during the 'Troubles' in the North, few politicians in the South cared very much about the injustice inflicted on Northern Nationalits, especially in jobs and housing. I'd like to know if John Turnley's name was mentioned among the victims. This former British Army officer who was a wealthy land owner and spoke with an Oxford accent was shot dead in front of his wife and young children in Co. Antrim on 6 June, 1980.. The murderers of this distinguished gentleman were NOT Republicans but Loyanist gunmen who hated Turnley because he was the leader and founder of the IRISH INDEPENDENCE PARTY. Turnley sought to reunite the Irish nation by political means, but to my knowledge, no one of influence in the South offered him any help.
sirpeter | Apr 06, 2012, 12:45 PM EDT
Georgie Boy.This is an annual commemoration which is going to be ongoing.It couldn't be done in bigot Belfast.They would have to have talks about the list and then talks about the talks and then sub-talks in secret rooms.That lot up there would take all the good out of it.
CitizenWhy | Apr 06, 2012, 09:47 AM EDT
Matthew 5:23-24 , quoting Jesus: ... 23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.
CitizenWhy | Apr 06, 2012, 09:42 AM EDT
I hope sometime in the future the governments in tee south and the north call for a moment of silence as this simple act of love for neighbor begins. RIP
GeorgeDillon | Apr 06, 2012, 09:28 AM EDT
How come this is done in Dublin? Why don't they do it in Belfast? Is it just posturing by the folks in Dublin, who have a long tradition of posturing?
GeorgeDillon | Apr 06, 2012, 09:26 AM EDT
How do they know which deaths came as a result of political violence? For example, William and Letitia Younger, mentioned above? What information do they have about the motives of those who killed them? Do they commemorate all deaths or just those which came about as a result of the conflict? It seems like a senseless exercise to me.