Four decades of bloodshed and tears the north could have avoided

The question is: now that we no longer have the sound of gunfire ringing in our ears, can we see any more clearly how a period of history that began with 400 people gathering in Derry’s Duke Street ended with 3,500 lost lives?

Or was there just some ghastly inevitability about it?

FOR many, this week marks 40 years since the start of the Troubles.