LffecLs of ueaLhs upon Survlvors

2.10

The dead cannot be restored to liIe, and the living victims oI all these incidents are those -
mothers, Iathers, wives, husbands, children - whose lives have been marked and
diminished by these events. Each Iatality can be compared with a heavy stone dropped into
a pool oI water, with ripples extending Iar and wide. These "secondary eIIects" oI violent
death are serious, oIten involving a reduced standard oI liIe Ior dependants, acute mental
agony and in too many cases continuing trauma. It has to be appreciated, too, that in some
cases the death oI a loved one may only have been a part, albeit the worst part, oI the
adverse impact oI being attacked, in that a home may be wrecked and/or a business
premises destroyed at the same time.

Scale oI the Injuries
2.11 Those who mourn have to cope with the eIIects oI violence over the long term. But there
are a very large number oI others who must Iace the continuing eIIects oI serious injury,
and these include both the injured themselves and those who care Ior them. For them, too,
the consequences can be complex. They will oIten include not only physical and emotional
trauma, but the adverse economic consequences oI the injury Ior employability and
earning-power.
2.12 There is no reliable central register oI the injured, or measure oI the long-term economic
and other eIIects oI their injuries. Statements issued immediately aIter a serious incident
normally state the numbers oI dead and/or injured. In some cases, aIter the initial trauma oI
an incident and eIIective treatment, individuals suIIer no serious long-term consequences.
In other cases the degree oI enduring physical disability may be very severe, and in yet
others the lasting psychological eIIect may be proIound. Work by COTT and others would
indicate between Iorty and IiIty thousand injured. There is no room Ior doubt that this has
involved much enduring suIIering and disability:- blindness, loss oI hearing,
disIigurement, single or multiple amputation etc. The unknown but certainly large number
oI persons suIIering long-term disability also translates to a much larger number oI
"secondary victims" in Iamilies permanently damaged by the injuries oI a close relative.
Again, as in the case oI Iatal casualties, an incident has all too oIten thrown up other
traumatic consequences such as the loss oI a house or a business.

Wider EIIects oI the Violence
2.13 There is, in a sense, some substance in the argument that no-one living in Northern Ireland
through this most unhappy period oI its history will have escaped some degree oI damage.
Many who have happily escaped death or injury have nevertheless been exposed to threat
and danger. Certain localities in particular have experienced an enduring atmosphere oI
tension and menace Social liIe has been constrained. Economic progress has been
impeded. Nevertheless, this Commission must aim its eIIort at a coherent and manageable
target group. These I deIine as the surviving injured and those who care Ior them, together
with those close relatives who mourn their dead.