A new book which will commemorate the many children killed during the Troubles will feature 15-year-old Fermanagh schoolboy Paul Maxwell who was killed when the IRA bombed Lord Mountbatten's fishing boat in Mullaghmore 40 years ago.

Children of the Troubles by broadcaster and writer Joe Duffy and Irish Times journalist Freya McClements, will be released on October 10.

To date, there is no complete list of the children who were killed, and the book will commemorate for the first time each of these lives which have effectively been written out of history.

The authors, from Dublin and Derry respectively, have worked on the project for more than a year.

Says Joe Duffy: "I discovered during my research into the forty children killed in the Easter Rising that the families simply wanted their relatives publicly remembered. It wasn't about blame, simply about commemorating and honouring these young children were part of our history.

Co-author Freya McClements said: "This is the first book which will focus solely on the children who were killed during the Troubles, and we hope it will go some way to righting the wrong which has seen many of the Troubles' youngest victims being effectively forgotten by history.

"We're deeply grateful to the families involved, and to organisations like the Pat Finucane Centre, Innocent Victims United and Relatives for Justice who are working alongside us.

"However it is vital for us to make sure that we attempt to make contact with the families of every child killed, in order to offer every family the opportunity to take part, and would like to appeal to any families who may not yet have heard from us to get in touch so that we can tell them more about the project and how they might be involved."

Also involved in the book are sisters Donna Macaulay and Lisa McKean who lost their brother Paul Maxwell from Fermanagh.

"Paul Maxwell, our much loved brother, died in 1979 when he was 15 years old. It is so important that he and all other children who died in the Troubles are remembered not as statistics but as individuals whose lives were cut tragically short," they said.

The book will be launched on October 14, 15 and 16 in Belfast, Derry and Dublin respectively.