Between 9th-11th August 1971, British soldiers belonging to the 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment and one other regiment, in the words of journalist Ian Cobain, ‘went on a prolonged killing spree’ in Ballymurphy. They shot dead 10 people in 36 hours including a local priest, Fr Hugh Mullan, who was administering the Last Rites to one of the victims. The others who died were Noel Phillips, Joan Connolly, Eddie Doherty, Joseph Corr (who died 16 days later), Frank Quinn, JohnMcKerr, Joseph Murphy, John Laverty and Danny Teggart. Another man, Paddy McCarthy, who was beaten up by the Paras died some weeks later after suffering a heart attack.
The British Parachute regiment which was responsible for most of those killed in Ballymurphy, went on to kill 13 civilians in the Bogside in Derry on 30 January 1972. There were no TV cameras in Ballymurphy on those fateful days in August ‘71. There were no journalists present and there was no international condemnations. That is why the Ballymurphy massacre had almost been forgotten until the relatives of the victims organised and began to seek the truth and to work for justice for their loved ones. It has been a long hard struggle. So far they have gained a lot of support for their campaign notably from the Church leaders and from the Dublin government. They have received nothing but obstruction from the Unionists and the British government.
After the British ‘killing spree’ only members of the Royal Military police were permitted to interview the troops involved. The soldiers maintained that they had been shooting at ‘terrorists’, and that ‘some of the dead were themselves gunmen and others caught in crossfire’. According to John Teggart the son of Danny Teggart: “The official version is that my daddy was a gunman, and that all these people were gunmen. His father Daniel, 44, was shot while attempting to cross open ground in front of an army base, and then shot several more times as he lay on the ground. “My daddy wasn’t a gunman; none of them were gunmen. We all know the truth. But I want an official acknowledgement of the truth.”
The original inquests were brief, resulting in ‘open verdicts’. In 2011, the families persuaded the Attorney General, John Larkin to open new inquests. Only problem is, it costs a lot of money and the Secretary of state, James Brokenshire has refused to resource the inquests. The families argue that it is the responsibility of the British government to finance the new inquests. They also reminded Mr Brokenshire that under the European Convention of Human Rights the British have a legal obligation to investigate crimes of state violence in a proper, prompt, independent and transparent fashion. At a recent meeting with the families Mr Brokenshire referred the case back to the Stormont executive. The relatives were so disgusted that they walked out of the meeting in protest. The campaign for the truth and for justice for the victims of the Ballymurphy massacre is continuing with the relatives more determined now than ever to get justice.
(On Thursday 22 September, those affected by the backlog of Inquests (an estimated 57) went to Stormont to hand in a letter of protest to Mr Brokenshire.)
here’s a bit more info about the ballymurphy massacre, with testimonies from family members, a full documentary and so forth
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/the-ballymurphy-massacre/
European Convention of Human Rights : The British want to remove themselves from the E C H R ,AND IN DOING SO CAN IGNORE ALL OF THEIR WRONG DOING AND MURDER BY THEIR ARMY POLICE AND SECRET SERVICE IN THE NORTH AS IT WILL NO LONGER APPLY
Where is your evidence that ‘the British’ want to ‘remove themselves from’ the ECHR?