A Belfast Child

John Chambers was brought up on Belfast's notorious Loyalist Glencairn estate, during the height of the Troubles. From an early age he witnessed violence, hatred and horror as Northern Ireland tore itself apart in civil strife. Kneecapping, brutal murders, and even public tarring-and-feathering were simply a fact of life for the children on the estate. He thought he knew which side he was on, but although raised as a Loyalist, he was hiding a troubling secret: that his disappeared mother - whom he'd always been told was dead - was a Roman Catholic, 'the enemy'. In a memoir of rare power, John explores the dark heart of Northern Irish sectarianism in the seventies and eighties. With searing honesty and native Belfast wit, he describes the light and darkness of his unique childhood, and his teenage journey through mod culture and ultra-Loyalism, before an escape from Belfast to London - where, still haunted by the shadow of his fractured family history - he began a turbulent and hedonistic adulthood. A Belfast Child is a tale of divided loyalties, dark secrets and the scars left by hatred and violence on a proud city - but also a story of hope, healing and ultimate redemption for a family caught in the rising tide of the Troubles.

Life is a journey. Often times and without choice, our actions and interactions within the environments in which we grow, live, work, and play, define our worldviews and shape who we are. Anyone who has faced traumatic events may look for an outlet to share their experiences in the hopes they are not alone in their struggles. In hindsight, however, the realization is that we are all human, and each and every one of us has a unique story to tell.

"The bullets didn't just travel in distance, they travelled in time. Some of those bullets never stop travelling." Jack Kennedy, father of James Kennedy On 15th August 1969, nine-year-old Patrick Rooney became the first child killed as a result of the 'Troubles' - one of 186 children who would die in the conflict in Northern Ireland. Fifty years on, these young lives are honoured in a memorable book that spans a singular era. From the teenage striker who scored two goals in a Belfast schools cup final, to the aspiring architect who promised to build his mother a house, to the five-year-old girl who wrote in her copy book on the day she died, 'I am a good girl. I talk to God', Children of the Troubles recounts the previously untold story of Northern Ireland's lost children -- and those who died in the Republic, the UK and as far afield as West Germany -- and the lives that might have been. Based on original interviews with almost one hundred families, as well as extensive archival research, this unique book includes many children who have never been publicly acknowledged as victims of the Troubles, and draws a compelling social and cultural picture of the era. Much loved, deeply mourned, and never forgotten, Children of the Troubles is both an acknowledgement of and a tribute to young lives lost.

Since the 1970s people have been murdering their neighbours in Northern Ireland. This book is the true account of the small-town violence and terror which lies behind the headlines.

Describes the life of Liam Leatham, a young Catholic boy, and his family as he prepares for a boxing match that he sees as the first step out of violence-plagued Belfast.

Resolution of intractable problems around the world requires understanding ordinary people as well as leaders. This street-level view of Northern Ireland provides the best explanation of the twenty-five-year conflict.

Autobiographical account of impoverished life in Ulster through the eyes of a black child, exposed to the daily struggles associated with sectarian strife in the 1960s and 1970s.