Nearly 4,000 people were killed over the thirty or so years of the Northern Irish Troubles. And the killings were as intimate as they were brutal. Neighbours murdered neighbours. Susan McKay’s book explores the difficult legacy of this conflict for families, friends and communities. By interviewing those who loved the missing and the dead, as well as some who narrowly survived, McKay gives a voice to those who are too often overlooked in the political histories. Old enemies are now in government together in Belfast, and the killing has all but stopped, but peace can only endure if the dead can finally be laid to rest. Bear in Mind These Dead is a moving and important contribution to that process.
Bear in Mind the Dead was shortlisted for the Christopher Ewart Biggs Prize for its contribution to peace, the book was critically acclaimed.
Praise for “Bear in Mind these Dead”
“sobering and tremendously moving… Anyone who wants to understand the sectarian conflict of Northern Ireland must therefore examine the individual tragedies that go to make up the broader narrative. This is the grim task to which McKay so admirably applies herself. She has tracked down the victims, survivors and, in some cases, perpetrators and gives eloquent voice to the human cost of armed violence. No one escapes censure. The British army, security services and the loyalists, who sometimes all colluded in appalling acts of terror, come in for devastating scrutiny. It’s hard to describe the sadism of the Shankill Butchers, who subjected their random Catholic victims to sickening tortures, without lapsing into righteous horror, but McKay is less interested in demonising the killers than humanising their targets.”
The Guardian
“[Susan McKay] has heard the broken heart of Northern Ireland”.
Frank McGuinness
“an exemplary undertaking…a necessary book.”
Patricia Craig