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 special forces 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 G ...
of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
killed eleven civilians in
Ballymurphy, Belfast, 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 Provisiona ...
(
internment
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...
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 status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...
a few months later, in which the name was first applied.
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 ...
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 ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
was particularly affected by political and sectarian violence during the early part of
the Troubles
The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...
. The
British Army
The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
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 ...
.
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 Provisiona ...
, 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 to practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and g ...
suspected members of the
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...
(IRA). The
Parachute 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 on
republicans
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
, 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 Cr ...
paramilitaries
A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934.
Overview
Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...
. Some
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...
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 denotes ...
s,
petrol bomb
A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see '') is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flammable liqui ...
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

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 List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
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:
* Patrick "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 Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
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 be ...
. 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 presides over the courts of Northern Ireland and is the head of the Northern Ireland, Northern Irish judiciary. The present Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland is Siobhan Keegan, Dame ...
, 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 cor ...
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 (Irish language, Irish: ''Feidhmeannas Thuaisceart Éireann'', Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster Scots: ''Norlin Airlan Executive'') is the devolution, devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branc ...
. 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 is serving as Chair of Intertrade UK since September 2024. She previously served as First ...
of the
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist, Ulster loyalism, loyalist, British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who ...
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 that it has more than ten million members a ...
. 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 and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...
, 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 ( Doris; born 10 January 1977) is an Irish politician who has been First Minister of Northern Ireland since February 2024 and President of Sinn Féin#Vice Presidents, Vice President of Sinn Féin since 2018. She has also been ...
. 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
Callum Macrae is a Scottish filmmaker, writer and journalist currently with Outsider Television, which he had co-founded with Alex Sutherland in 1993.
An Emmy, BAFTA and Grierson nominee, he has been making films for 20 years in the UK and aro ...
and made in association with
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
.
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 ...
References
{{Terrorism in the United Kingdom
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
Human rights abuses in the United Kingdom
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 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
British military scandals
1971 murders in Ireland
Terrorist incidents in Ireland in the 1970s
20th-century mass murder in Northern Ireland