Paul Rouse: Sporting lives lost to the Troubles

Sport is present time and again in Lost Lives

Lost Lives, the film adaptation by DoubleBand Films for the BBC

Sometimes a book is so brilliant that it becomes a part of history. So it is with ‘Lost Lives’, which was published in 1999 and has been out of print for more than a decade; second-hand copies now sell for more than €500.

The book was written by five journalists who worked on the Troubles: David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris Thornton and David McVea. Over a seven-year period they examined every death directly caused by the Troubles; the stories of each of the lives that was lost is told in individual entries that run across more than 1,600 pages.