Loss of a Loved One...

Over 3,600 people have been killed in the violence in Northern Ireland.  This has left many homes and families devastated by the loss of loved ones.

We were a mixed marriage. 
My husband just went to work
and the next thing I heard five shots.
Then the door wrapped
and my blood just ran cold.
The police knew it was the UVF
but they never ever got anybody for it.
He had been shot in the back
and when he lay on the ground they went over and shot him in the head.

  ......

I got home from work
and my mother told me my father was dead
but then within a couple of seconds
his photo came up on the TV.
His body had been found in Glencairn
and it looked as if it was the Shankill Butchers.
The police came for us to go and identify the body.
You probably go through your whole life
and never see a sight like that,
I remember I never cried
until the day we buried him
I wondered before they killed him,
was he begging them to kill him
because he must have suffered terribly
and I wondered was he saying to them
put an end to it.
I just didn't have nightmares every night,
it got worse later on.

Additional extracts from:  a woman from the Hindu community who lost a member of her extended family in crossfire and a woman whose husband was killed by a plastic bullet.

Proceed to final section 'The Disappeared'

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