IRA killed 1,706 in Troubles

ACCORDING to the CAIN research project at the University of Ulster, the Provisional IRA was responsible for the deaths of 1,706 people during the Troubles up to 2001.

This figure represents 48.4% of the fatalities in the conflict.

497 of these casualties were civilians.

638 of the casualties were from the British Army (183 from the Ulster Defence Regiment and 455 from other regiments).

Another 271 of the casualties were members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Of its victims, 340 were Northern Irish Catholics, 794 were Northern Irish Protestants and 572 were not from Northern Ireland.

The IRA lost 276 members during the Troubles. In 132 of these cases, IRA members either caused their own deaths (as a result of hunger strikes, premature bombing accidents etc), or were murdered on allegations of having worked for the security forces.

These executions killed more IRA members than any other organisation did during the Troubles.

763 soldiers have been killed in Northern Ireland since 1969, mostly in Belfast and Armagh. Counter- terrorist experience in the North later proved useful in Iraq.

The list of names reproduced on the Irish Examiner's front page today is based on the records compiled on the Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) located at the Magee Campus within the University of Ulster (www.cain.ulst.ac.uk). This provides a wide range of information and source material on the conflict in the North from 1968 to the present day. Authors responsible for the compilation of the list are Malcolm Sutton and Martin Melaugh.

One name not included in our page one image is Robert McCartney, whose death earlier this year caused huge controversy and political embarrassment for Sinn Fein.

His death is listed, along with others, on the CAIN website under the category "uncertain if conflict related".