HOW LONG does it take to recite the names of all the men, women and children who died during the Troubles?A little over three hours.
The alphabetical litany, which took place at the Unitarian Church on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin yesterday, begins and ends with death in north Belfast.
The grim list of more than 3,500 names opens with the name of Anthony Abbott, a soldier from Manchester who was shot by the IRA in Ardoyne in 1976.
It closes with those of William and Letitia Younger, an elderly Protestant man and his daughter killed at their home in Ligoniel four years later.
The event, the only service of its kind in Ireland, marked the 10th successive year that such a ceremony has taken place at the church on Good Friday.
In December 2008, it was decided to wind down the annual reading of the names but the killings of soldiers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar, and PSNI constable Stephen Carroll, some months later prompted organisers to reconsider.
This year, the solemn ceremony was preceded by a performance of Haydn’s oratorio The Seven Last Words of Christ by the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet.
The recital, which was broadcast live on RTÉ Lyric FM, was interspersed with Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Mark Strand’s poem After The Seven Last Words read by actor Denis Conway.
The reading of the names began at noon, with each participant reciting some 100 names from a candle-lit pulpit. No other information was given about the deceased, apart from the year of death when two or more of the same name had been killed.
The litany was broken only with short prayers recited by the Rev Bill Darlison, the senior minister at the Unitarian Church.
The event also included a collection for the Irish Red Cross Haiti appeal.
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