Springhill massacre

Springhill massacre
Part of the Troubles
Poster demanding an inquiry in the Beechmount area of Belfast
Location	Belfast, Northern Ireland
Date	9 July 1972
Attack type	Mass shooting
Deaths	5
Injured	2

The Springhill massacre was an incident in which five Catholic residents were killed by the British Army on 9 July 1972 in the Springhill estate in West Belfast, Northern Ireland. Three of the victims were teenagers, two of them with republican paramilitary links; one was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army's youth wing and the other was a member of the Official Irish Republican Army’s youth wing. The incident took place during The Troubles.

Background

Civil sectarian conflict, caused by ethno-nationalist divisions, civil rights grievances, and revolutionary Marxist politics, augmented with escalating violence between paramilitary factions and the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British Army, had been ongoing in Northern Ireland since 1969, with several hundred people having been killed or injured. The area of West Belfast was particularly stricken with violent confrontations between elements of the Irish nationalist community and the police and military forces of the British State. West Belfast was increasingly a problem area for the police and the army given the open hostility of the population towards their presence, and activity from Irish Republican paramilitary forces in the neighbourhood, with the Provisional Irish Republican Army becoming increasingly aggressive in its attacks at the time that the Springhill shooting incident occurred.

Shooting incident at Springhill

Provisional IRA version

According to a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) statement, on 10 July 1972, British Army snipers from the Parachute Regiment took up a position in Corry's timber yard at Springhill, West Belfast, and were seen to be reinforcing it with sandbags. Two cars subsequently drove into the vicinity, and the British Army detachment were observed to open fire upon them, firing two shots at the vehicles. One of the cars drove away at speed, whilst the other one drove a short distance and then stopped, the occupants getting out. On the occupants exiting the vehicle, the British Army post opened fire upon them. One of the stopped car's occupants was hit by a bullet in the head and fell seriously wounded. A local resident, Brian Petticrew, seeing the nearby incident, ran over to help the wounded man, but was also fired upon, and hit in the arm. Then this man's brother and a friend ran to the downed occupant but both were also wounded by gunfire in the process.

At some point during the incident, a 13-year-old girl, Margaret Garan, was fatally shot. A parish priest, Father Noel Fitzpatrick, and Patrick Butler, a passer-by, both ran to her assistance. Fitzpatrick was reportedly seen to be waving a white cloth above his head to display himself as a non-combatant, but they were also fired upon and killed. All of the victims were unarmed.

British Army statement

The British Army disputed the PIRA statement of the events, claiming that its troops were fired upon first by Provisional Irish Republican Army gunmen, ending a temporary ceasefire in the West Belfast area at that time. A British Army spokesman stated that: "There had been a heavy exchange of fire between the IRA and troops, some of the dead and wounded were undoubtedly caught in a crossfire." The next day, 10 July 1972, the British Army stated that terrorists at the scene had been engaged and killed in the cross-fire with its detachment. Two of the five dead at the scene, who were occupants of the stopped vehicle, John Dougal (16), and David McCafferty (15), were reported to be members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army's Youth Wing, Fianna Éireann.

The dead commemorated in a republican garden of Remembrance in Ballymurphy, Belfast

Aftermath

An "open" verdict was recorded at an inquest into the event, which has since sometimes been called "the forgotten massacre", because it has been overshadowed by the Bloody Sunday mass shooting in Derry just a few months earlier, in which British soldiers shot 26 unarmed Catholic civilians, only half of whom survived; and the even closer-by Ballymurphy massacre the prior year, in which members of the same battalion killed 11 civilians over three days.

During the several decades since the Springhill incident, there has been intermittent pressure-group campaigning by relatives of the casualties, seeking a new legal inquiry into the event. In 2014, the Attorney General for Northern Ireland, John Larkin QC, announced that new inquests have been scheduled into the deaths that occurred in the Springhill incident.

There are two memorials for the slain, both in Ballymurphy, Belfast: Springhill Massacre Memorial Garden (dedicated on 4 May 1999), and Ballymurphy Gairdin Cuimhneachain (completed 27 November 2005 and a memorial also to other area residents killed by the British Army and Loyalist paramilitary groups).

Killed

• Patrick Butler, 39, shot in the head.
• John Dougal, 16, gunshot wound to the chest, Fianna Éireann (member of Provisional Irish Republican Army Youth Section).
• Margaret Gargan, 13 years old, gunshot wound in the head.
• Father Noel Fitzpatrick, 40, shot in the neck.
• David McCafferty, 15, shot in the chest, Fianna Éireann (member of OIRA Youth Section)

Wounded

• Martin Dudley, shot in the back of the head
• Brian Petticrew, shot in the arm and the back.

See also

• Ballymurphy massacre

External links

• McLaughlin, C. Recording Memories from Political Violence, Intellect Books, 2010.]
• Walker, Bob Smith "Red Sky at Night", 2016