evidence: Republican paramilitaries were responsible for almost 60 per cent of all deaths during the Troubles and as such the republican community could well be seen as an oppressive minority who maintained the conflict longer than was necessary, according to leading academic. Prof Liam Kennedy of the Centre for Economic History at Queen's University Belfast said that his analysis of the figures compiled by David McKittrick in his book Lost Lives on those who died in the Troubles between 1966 and 1999 showed republican paramilitaries were responsible for over half. According to Prof Kennedy, there were 2,636 Troubles related deaths during that period and republican paramilitaries accounted for some 59 per cent with the Provisional IRA accounting for almost half – 49 per cent – of all these deaths.