Ballymurphy Massacre (1971)

Mon Aug 09, 1971

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Image: The image shows a large streetside sign with the text “BALLYMURPHY MASSACRE AUGUST 1971 WE DEMAND THE TRUTH”, as well as the faces and names of the eleven people who were killed

On this day in 1971, more than 600 British soldiers entered the Ballymurphy area of Belfast in a military operation meant to “stun the civilian population”, killing eleven innocent people in what is now called the Ballymurphy Massacre.

The violence was part of the British Operation Demetrius, which explicitly allowed for internment without trial and targeted Irish Republicans/nationalist factions of the population.

The massacre began when the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment of the British Army entered Ballymurphy the evening of August 9th, 1971. Six civilians were killed that day, including Father Hugh Mullan, who notified the Army that he was entering the area to help a wounded man, and was shot to death while brandishing a white flag.

Another person killed was Joseph Murphy, who was shot as he stood opposite the Army Base. He was taken into custody, where he was beaten and shot again before being released and expiring.

The violence continued for two more days, killing eleven people in total. A 2021 coroner’s report found that all those killed had been innocent and that the killings were “without justification”.

The same battalion that committed this massacre later shot twenty-six unarmed civilians during a protest march in Derry against the internment without trial policy.

The Ballymurphy Massacre is the subject of the August 2018 documentary “The Ballymurphy Precedent”, directed by Callum Macrae and made in association with Channel 4.