The Ballymurphy massacre was a series of incidents between 9 and 11 August 1971, in which the
1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment
The 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment (1 PARA), is a battalion of the British Army's Parachute Regiment. Along with various other regiments and corps from across the British Armed Forces, it is part of Special Forces Support Group.
A specia ...
of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
killed at least nine civilians in
Ballymurphy,
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
, Northern Ireland, as part of
Operation Demetrius
Operation Demetrius was a British Army operation in Northern Ireland on 9–10 August 1971, during the Troubles. It involved the mass arrest and internment (imprisonment without trial) of people suspected of being involved with the Irish Republi ...
(
internment
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
without trial). The shootings were later referred to as Belfast's Bloody Sunday, a reference to the
killing of civilians by the same battalion in
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...
a few months later.
The 1972 inquests had returned an
open verdict The open verdict is an option open to a coroner's jury at an inquest in the legal system of England and Wales. The verdict means the jury confirms the death is suspicious, but is unable to reach any other verdicts open to them. Mortality studies c ...
on all of the killings, but a 2021 coroner's report found that all those killed had been innocent and that the killings were "without justification".
Background
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
was particularly affected by political and sectarian violence during the early part of
the Troubles
The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...
. The
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
had been
deployed in Northern Ireland in 1969, as events had become beyond the control of the
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal ...
.
On the morning of Monday 9 August 1971, the security forces launched
Operation Demetrius
Operation Demetrius was a British Army operation in Northern Ireland on 9–10 August 1971, during the Troubles. It involved the mass arrest and internment (imprisonment without trial) of people suspected of being involved with the Irish Republi ...
, the main focus of which was to arrest and
intern
An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...
suspected members of the
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reun ...
(IRA). The
Parachute Regiment was selected to carry out the operation. The operation was chaotic and informed by poor intelligence, resulting in a number of innocent people being interned. By focusing solely on
republicans, it excluded violence carried out by
loyalist
Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...
paramilitaries
A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...
. Some
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
neighbourhoods attempted to disrupt the army with
barricade
Barricade (from the French ''barrique'' - 'barrel') is any object or structure that creates a barrier or obstacle to control, block passage or force the flow of traffic in the desired direction. Adopted as a military term, a barricade denot ...
s,
petrol bomb
A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flammab ...
s and gunfire. In the Catholic district of
Ballymurphy, ten civilians were shot and killed between the evening of 9 August and the morning of 11 August, while another died of heart failure.
Members of the Parachute Regiment stated that they were shot at by republicans as they entered the Ballymurphy area and returned fire.
The press officer for the British Army stationed in Belfast,
Mike Jackson, later to become head of the British Army, includes a disputed account of the shootings in his autobiography, stating that those killed in the shootings were republican gunmen. This claim was strongly denied by the families of those killed in the shootings, including in interviews conducted during the documentary film ''The Ballymurphy Precedent''. The claim was found to be without basis by a later coroner’s inquest, which established that those killed were "entirely innocent".
Timeline
![Ballymurphy garden](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Ballymurphy_garden.JPG)
Six civilians were killed on 9 August:
* Francis Quinn (19), shot while going to the aid of a wounded man.
* Father Hugh Mullan (38), a
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
priest, shot while going to the aid of a wounded man, reputedly while waving a white cloth to indicate his intentions.
* Joan Connolly (44), shot as she stood opposite the army base. It has been claimed she was shot by three soldiers and that she might have survived had she been given medical attention sooner, but she lay injured in a field for several hours.
* Daniel Teggart (44) was shot fourteen times. Most of the bullets entered his back, allegedly as he lay injured on the ground.
* Noel Phillips (20), shot as he stood opposite the army base.
* Joseph Murphy (41), shot as he stood opposite the army base.
Murphy was subsequently taken into army custody and after his release, as he was dying in hospital, he claimed that he had been beaten and shot again while in custody. When his body was
exhumed in October 2015, a second bullet was discovered in his body, which activists said corroborated his claim.
One civilian was killed on 10 August:
* Edward Doherty (28), shot while walking along Whiterock Road.
Another three civilians were shot on 11 August:
* John Laverty (20) and Joseph Corr (43) were shot at separate points at the top of the Whiterock Road. Laverty was shot twice, once in the back and once in the back of the leg. Corr was shot several times and died of his injuries on 27 August.
* John McKerr (49), was shot in the head by an unknown sniper while standing outside a Catholic church and died of his injuries on 20 August.
While a number of eyewitnesses stated that soldiers were seen shooting towards the area,
the 2021 inquest could not establish who had killed him.
The coroner noted that a more specific finding was not possible, in large part, due to an "abject failing by the authorities to properly inquire into the death of
cKerr at the time.
An eleventh civilian died on 11 August, following an altercation with a group of soldiers:
* Paddy McCarthy (44), McCarthy's family allege that an empty gun was put in his mouth and the trigger pulled, he suffered a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
and died shortly after the alleged confrontation.
Inquests
In February 2015, the conviction of Terry Laverty, younger brother of John Laverty, one of those killed, was quashed by the
Criminal Cases Review Commission
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is the statutory body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It was established by Section 8 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 and bega ...
. He had been convicted of riotous behaviour and sentenced to six months on the eyewitness evidence of a private in the Parachute Regiment. The case was referred to court because the sole witness retracted his evidence.
In 2016, Sir
Declan Morgan, the
Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland
The Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland is a judge who is the appointed official holding office as President of the Courts of Northern Ireland and is head of the Judiciary of Northern Ireland. The present Lord Chief Justice of Northern Irela ...
, recommended an
inquest
An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a coro ...
into the killings as one of a series of "legacy inquests" covering 56 cases related to the Troubles. These inquests were delayed, as funding had not been approved by the
Northern Ireland Executive
The Northern Ireland Executive is the devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branch of the legislature – the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is answerable to the assembly and was initially established according to the ter ...
. The Stormont first minister
Arlene Foster
Arlene Isobel Foster, Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee (née Kelly; born 17 July 1970), is a British broadcaster and politician from Northern Ireland who served as First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2016 to 2017 and from 2020 to 2021 and ...
of the
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a unionist, loyalist, and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who led the party for the next 37 years. Currently led by J ...
deferred a bid for extra funding for inquests into historic killings in Northern Ireland,
a decision condemned by the human rights group
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
. Foster confirmed she had used her influence in the devolved power-sharing executive to hold back finance for a backlog of inquests connected to the conflict.
The High Court said her decision to refuse to put a funding paper on the Executive basis was "unlawful and procedurally flawed".
In January 2018, the coroner's office announced that the inquest would begin in September 2018. On 11 May 2021, this coroner's inquest found that the 10 civilians killed were innocent, and that the use of lethal force by the British Army was "not justified".
The circumstances of the 11th death were not part of the inquest, since Paddy McCarthy died from a heart attack, allegedly after being threatened by a soldier.
Following the inquest verdict,
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
, the British prime minister, apologised for the deaths at Ballymurphy in a phone call to Foster and
deputy first minister Michelle O'Neill
Michelle O'Neill (née Doris; born 10 January 1977) is an Irish politician who served as deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland between 2020 and 2022. She has been serving as Vice President of Sinn Féin since 2018 and is the Member of the ...
. The lack of public apology was criticised by some relatives of the victims and Northern Irish politicians.
In May 2021 families of those shot dead by British soldiers in Ballymurphy urged the Irish government to oppose any attempt to prevent the prosecution of British soldiers alleged to have committed crimes during the Troubles.
Documentary
The killings are the subject of the August 2018 documentary ''The Ballymurphy Precedent'', directed by
Callum Macrae and made in association with
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
.
See also
*
List of massacres in Ireland
This is a list of incidents that happened on the island of Ireland (encompassing what exists today as the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) and are commonly called massacres. All those that took place during the late 20th century were p ...
*
Bloody Sunday, 1972
References
{{Reflist, colwidth=25em
1971 murders in the United Kingdom
Conflicts in 1971
1971 in Northern Ireland
Massacres in 1971
1971 mass shootings in Europe
The Troubles in Belfast
Massacres in Northern Ireland
Massacres committed by the United Kingdom
Terrorism committed by the United Kingdom
British Army in Operation Banner
Military scandals
Deaths by firearm in Northern Ireland
Military actions and engagements during the Troubles (Northern Ireland)
Spree shootings in Northern Ireland
Terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom in 1971
Terrorism deaths in Northern Ireland
August 1971 events in the United Kingdom
Terrorist incidents in Northern Ireland
People killed by security forces during The Troubles (Northern Ireland)
Mass shootings in Belfast
1970s murders in Northern Ireland