Carnage in Cumbria - Seeing the dark side of being human

WHITEHAVEN, Egremont and Gosforth might just as easily have been Quilty, Spanish Point and Mullagh, or maybe Courtown, Ballygarret and Knockbrandon. Or, if the truth be told, any shy, idyllic backwater on this island.

That such a tragedy has never darkened our lives is almost as difficult to understand as it is to understand why Derrick Bird imploded and rampaged through Cumbria on Wednesday killing 13 people.

One of the first to die was his twin brother David but Bird did not know the great majority of people he shot to death or the dozens more he injured.