SUFFERING AS a direct result of the Troubles continues at an alarming level in parts of west and north Belfast, a survey has uncovered. The research revealed that 13 per cent of the trauma resource centre clients had suffered paramilitary beatings and 7 per cent shootings.
The Belfast health and social care trusts Trauma Resource Centre carried out the research as part of its efforts to better understand both the history and the problems of people being referred to it.
Referring to the publication of the findings yesterday, victims commissioner Brendan McAllister said: "Fourteen years after the big ceasefires, 12 years after the Good Friday agreement, a trauma centre in north and west Belfast confirms a high level of trauma are still being suffered.
"As the euphoria of a political settlement wears off and is replaced by an often grim and uncertain cohabitation of uncomfortable partners in government, as the intensity and vividness of our lives in the years of violent conflict gives way to a new kind of banality in our peace, through these times of profound change in the lives of our citizens and of whole communities, many people are struggling with the meaning of their lives, with all that they have experienced, with the point of it all."