Ballymurphy massacre
| Ballymurphy Massacre | |
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| Part of the Troubles | |
A mural in Belfast commemorating the victims of the Ballymurphy Massacre.
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| Location | Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Coordinates | 54°34′30″N 5°58′26″W / 54.575°N 5.974°WCoordinates: 54°34′30″N 5°58′26″W / 54.575°N 5.974°W |
| Date | 9 – 11 August 1971 |
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Attack type
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Shooting |
| Deaths | 11 |
| Perpetrator | The Parachute Regiment, British Army |
The Ballymurphy Massacre was a series of incidents involving the killing of eleven civilians by the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment of the British Army in Ballymurphy, Belfast, Northern Ireland. The killings happened between 9 and 11 August 1971, during Operation Demetrius. The shootings have also been called Belfast Bloody Sunday, a reference to another massacre of civilians by the same battalion a few months later.
The Northern Ireland Troubles had been ongoing for two years, and Belfast was particularly affected by political and sectarian violence. The British Army had been deployed in Northern Ireland in 1969, as events had gone beyond the control of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
On the morning of Monday 9 August 1971, the security forces launched Operation Demetrius. The plan was to arrest and intern anyone suspected of being a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The unit selected for this operation was the Parachute Regiment—the same regiment later responsible for the Bloody Sunday killings in Derry on 30 January 1972. Members of the Parachute Regiment stated that, as they entered the Ballymurphy area, they were shot at by republicans and returned fire.
In 2016 Declan Morgan, the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, recommended an inquest into the killings as one of a series of "legacy inquests" covering 56 cases related to the Troubles. However these inquests are not currently scheduled to go ahead since funding was not approved by the Northern Ireland Executive, reportedly due to the influence of Arlene Foster, the First Minister of Northern Ireland, a decision condemned by the human rights group Amnesty International.
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Wikipedia