Press Release: Paper Trail has launched an interactive Memorial Map to commemorate all victims of our conflict.
Paper Trail's Memorial Map project is an interactive digital resource which aims to commemorate every life lost as a result of the Northern Ireland conflict since 1966. The Memorial Map marks a significant step in the effort to commemorate all victims equally and connect every loss of life to a location.
Paper Trail’s Memorial Map currently records 4,481 individual lives lost as a result of the conflict and includes violence up to the present day. It remembers over 800 more victims than the two foundational records of the conflict’s human cost: Bear in mind these dead … An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland 1969-1993; and Lost Lives. Paper Trail’s Memorial Map also includes: information from Ulster University’s commemoration of victims this century on its Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN); and the British Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) list of servicemen/women who died while serving during Operation Banner (1969 – 2007). MOD released this comprehensive list of victims following a Freedom of Information request, adding the names of over 700 who died outside of “Hostile Action”. These additional victims included British Armed Forces personnel who died due to “Other Causes” such as military accidents and death by suicide. Paper Trail’s own extensive research is adding and amending information where required.
On This Day Feature
As well as exploring the interactive Memorial Map by location, visitors can search for victims by their name and the date of their death. The new web app also includes an "On This Day" feature that commemorates victims’ anniversaries as they occur.
Paper Trail stresses that the Memorial Map is a commemorative work-in-progress: over the next year, the charity’s manager, Ciarán MacAirt, will continue to locate, verify, and amend records manually for anniversaries. Families and friends of each victim can also contact him directly from the Memorial Map if they wish him to amend an entry for their loved one.
Ciarán MacAirt developed Paper Trail’s Memorial Map and he said:
"We commemorate each life lost during the terrible conflict in Ireland and Britain from 1966. Each entry marks a human life – a parent, a child, a partner, a friend, a neighbour – and grieving loved ones left behind.”
“Paper Trail's Memorial Map connects the loss of each life to a location, and each place represents a home, a road, a parish, a town and a community impacted by violence. It helps us visualize how the conflict has damaged tens of thousands of lives across time and space."
“Paper Trail's Memorial Map also stands as a stark, visual warning that we cannot be complacent about peace either, as lives continue to be lost long after the signing of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement in 1998. These latest victims include my talented pal, Lyra McKee, killed in Fanad Drive, Creggan, Derry, on 18th April, 2019.”
“Paper Trail is inviting families and friends of victims to review the record that commemorates their loved one. They can contact me directly with any amendments or additional information. I will manually correct the entry myself. Otherwise, I will research each for anniversaries as they occur and remember them then.”
Visit Paper Trail's Memorial Map >>
Acknowledgements below...
Acknowledgements
Paper Trail developed this Memorial Map with the kind support of the Irish American Unity Conference and it would not have been possible without the great scholarship that preceded it.
Two works remain the foundational records of the conflict's human cost: Bear in mind these dead … An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland 1969-1993 by Malcolm Sutton; and Lost Lives by David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, and Chris Thornton — each a monumental act of research, journalism and compassion that gave a name, an age, and a story to thousands of victims who might otherwise have been forgotten.
The Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) at Ulster University provided an essential resource to cross-reference and verify data. Dr. Martin Melaugh and his team at CAIN tend to this terrible list to this day with the same compassion and diligence.
Paper Trail's Memorial Map also adds the names of more than 700 other victims of the conflict, mainly British armed forces who died in military accidents, weapons discharges and crashes or those who died by suicide, broken by battle during Operation Banner. The British Ministry of Defence provided these additional names via Freedom of Information.
