TheBallymurphy massacre was a series of incidents between 9 and 11 August 1971, in which the1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment of theBritish Army killed eleven civilians inBallymurphy, Belfast, Northern Ireland, as part ofOperation Demetrius (internment without trial). The shootings were later referred to as Belfast's Bloody Sunday, a reference to thekilling of civilians by the same battalion inDerry a few months later, in which the name was first applied.[1][2] The 1972 inquests had returned anopen verdict on all of the killings,[3] but a 2021 coroner's report found that all those killed had been innocent and that the killings were "without justification".[4]
On the morning of Monday 9 August 1971, the security forces launchedOperation Demetrius, the main focus of which was to arrest andintern suspected members of theProvisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). TheParachute Regiment was selected to carry out the operation. The operation was chaotic and informed by poor intelligence, resulting in many innocent people being interned. By focusing solely onrepublicans, it excluded violence carried out byloyalistparamilitaries. Somenationalist neighbourhoods attempted to disrupt the army withbarricades,petrol bombs and gunfire.[5] In the Catholic district ofBallymurphy, ten civilians were shot and killed between the evening of 9 August and the morning of 11 August, while another died of heart failure.[6]
Members of the Parachute Regiment stated that they were shot at by republicans as they entered the Ballymurphy area and returned fire.[7][8] 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.[9] This claim was strongly denied by the families of those killed in the shootings, including in interviews conducted during the documentary filmThe Ballymurphy Precedent.[10][11] The claim was found to be without basis by a later coroner's inquest, which established that those killed were "entirely innocent".[8][12]
Francis Quinn (19), shot while going to the aid of a wounded man.[13][6]
Father Hugh Mullan (38), aCatholic priest, shot while going to the aid of a wounded man, reputedly while waving a white cloth to indicate his intentions.[13][14][15]
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.[13][16][17][15]
Daniel Teggart (44) was shot fourteen times. Most of the bullets entered his back, allegedly as he lay injured on the ground.[13][1]
Noel Phillips (20), shot as he stood opposite the army base.[13][18]
Joseph Murphy (41), shot as he stood opposite the army base.[13] 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 wasexhumed in October 2015, a second bullet was discovered in his body, which activists said corroborated his claim.[19]
One civilian was killed on 10 August:
Edward Doherty (28), shot while walking along Whiterock Road.[20]
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.[13][21]
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.[6][22][23] While a number of eyewitnesses stated that soldiers were seen shooting towards the area,[6] the 2021 inquest could not establish who had killed him.[24] 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 [McKerr at the time]".[25][26]
An eleventh civilian died on 11 August, following an altercation with a group of soldiers:
Patrick "Paddy" McCarthy (44), McCarthy's family allege that an empty gun was put in his mouth and the trigger pulled; he suffered aheart attack and died shortly after the alleged confrontation.[27][28]
In February 2015, the conviction of Terry Laverty, younger brother of John Laverty, one of those killed, was quashed by theCriminal Cases Review Commission.[29] 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.[30]
In 2016, SirDeclan Morgan, theLord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, recommended aninquest into the killings as one of a series of "legacy inquests" covering 56 cases related to the Troubles.[31][32] These inquests were delayed, as funding had not been approved by theNorthern Ireland Executive. The Stormont first ministerArlene Foster of theDemocratic Unionist Party deferred a bid for extra funding for inquests into historic killings in Northern Ireland,[33] a decision condemned by the human rights groupAmnesty International.[34] 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.[33] The High Court said her decision to refuse to put a funding paper on the Executive basis was "unlawful and procedurally flawed".[35]
In January 2018, the coroner's office announced that the inquest would begin in September 2018.[36] 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".[8] 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.[19] Following the inquest verdict,Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, apologised for the deaths at Ballymurphy in a phone call to Foster anddeputy first ministerMichelle O'Neill. The lack of public apology was criticised by some relatives of the victims and Northern Irish politicians.[37]
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.[38]
The killings are the subject of the August 2018 documentaryThe Ballymurphy Precedent, directed byCallum Macrae and made in association withChannel 4.[39]
^"Innocent victims of Ballymurphy killings vindicated by coroner's findings".Belfast Telegraph. 11 May 2021. Retrieved15 May 2021.The coroner said she was unable to deliver a finding on who had shot Mr McKerr due to weaknesses in the evidence [..] "This abject failing by the authorities to properly inquire into the death of a civilian on the streets has hampered me greatly"
^"'Entirely innocent' What happened at Ballymurphy?".BBC News. BBC. Retrieved15 May 2021.she was unable to determine who killed the 10th victim - John McKerr - in large part because of the "abject failing" of authorities to investigate at the time
^Kearney, Vincent (18 January 2016)."The Troubles: Judge begins review of inquests".BBC News. London. Retrieved4 May 2016.There are 56 cases involving 97 deaths. ... The stalled inquests into the Army shootings of 10 people in Ballymurphy, west Belfast, in 1971, and of five more civilians in nearby Springhill a year later, were examined on the opening day in Laganside Courts.
^Kearney, Vincent (3 May 2016)."Lord Chief Justice legacy inquests plan put on hold".BBC News. London. Retrieved4 May 2016.A radical plan by Northern Ireland's most senior judge to deal with inquests into some of the most controversial killings of the Troubles has been put on hold.
