Paper Trail, the Belfast-based victims’ charity, launched its new Memorial Map that records all the lives that have been lost in Northern Ireland from 1966 to the present day
A charity has launched a heartbreaking interactive map that documents the date and location of all 4,481 lives who lost their lives during the conflict in Northern Ireland.
Paper Trail, the Belfast-based victims’ charity, launched its new Memorial Map that records all the lives that have been lost in Northern Ireland from 1966 to the present day. It marks a significant step in the effort to commemorate all victims equally and connect every loss of life to a location.
People are able to use the interactive map as a took to serach 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. You can view it via this link: https://memorialmap.papertrail.pro/.
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.”
The map remembers 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.
It 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 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.
You can view it via this link: https://memorialmap.papertrail.pro/.
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