Key points
- Ten people were shot dead in Ballymurphy on 9–11 August 1971.
- In May 2021 the coroner found all ten entirely innocent; soldiers were responsible for nine deaths, and one could not be attributed.
Between 9 and 11 August 1971, ten people were shot dead in and around the Ballymurphy estate in west Belfast. The killings happened in the days after the introduction of internment without trial, as the British Army moved into nationalist areas to arrest suspects. Among the dead were a Catholic priest, Fr Hugh Mullan, and a mother of eight, Joan Connolly.
For fifty years the families campaigned to clear their relatives' names. In May 2021 a coroner did.
The findings
On 11 May 2021 Mrs Justice Siobhan Keegan delivered the findings of fresh inquests. Her central conclusion was that all ten "were entirely innocent of any wrongdoing on the day in question". On responsibility, she found:
- Fr Hugh Mullan and Frank Quinn were killed by shots fired by soldiers, and the force used was not justified.
- Noel Phillips, Joseph Murphy, Joan Connolly and Daniel Teggart were shot by soldiers firing from the Henry Taggart Hall army base. She could not say which soldiers fired.
- Edward Doherty was shot by a soldier, and the force was disproportionate.
- Joseph Corr and John Laverty were shot by the Army; there was no evidence that anyone else could have shot them.
- In the case of John McKerr, she could not determine whether the fatal shot was fired by the military or by paramilitaries.
The response
The families described the findings as a vindication. Political leaders in Belfast and Dublin welcomed them. The then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, apologised to the families in the days that followed.
Why it matters
The Ballymurphy inquests are an example of what a legacy inquest can do: hear evidence in public, test soldiers' accounts and reach findings decades after the event. They also became part of the argument over the UK's legacy legislation. The 2023 Legacy Act brought a halt to legacy inquests that had not reached an advanced stage, which families and human-rights groups strongly opposed. Our explainer on the 2021 legacy proposals covers that debate.