THE BALLYMURPHY families have welcomed a decision by the North’s attorney general John Larkin to order fresh inquests into the killings of 10 people shot dead by British paratroopers in the west Belfast area in 1971. The families have been pressing for an independent inquiry into the killings by the soldiers which happened just months before the same regiment was involved in Bloody Sunday in Derry which resulted in 14 killings of innocent civilians.
They repeated their calls for an international inquiry yesterday while adding that the reopened inquests were a “very important step on our journey for truth”.
The families say that 11 people died, including a priest and a mother of eight children, as a result of the shootings and actions of the paratroopers which happened in August 1971 during the introduction of internment without trial.
The British army said it fired in response to shots from republicans.
The 11th victim was Paddy McCarthy (44) who died as a result of heart attack a short time after a soldier allegedly put an empty gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger.
“We will continue to gather evidence and locate and record witness evidence to assist a further application to the attorney general in relation to the death of Mr McCarthy.
“We will continue in our quest to have the truth about Pat’s death to be a matter of historical record,” the families said.
The families said Mr Larkin exhibited leadership and credibility in announcing that the inquests will be reopened.
“We regard the original sham inquests as a serious neglect of duty by everyone involved and leave a lot of questions to be answered,” they added.
The families called for the inquests to be held without delay, and with sufficient resources and funding provided to the coroner and the families’ legal representatives to ensure that all of the facts were known.
They added that even a fully resourced and effective inquest would have limitations.
“It will be able to provide facts and gather crucial forensic, logistical and witness testimony evidence, but it will not be able to examine the causes, context and consequences of the massacre and answer so many of the questions that must be answered,” the families said.
“We believe that only an international and independent investigation can facilitate the discovery of the facts and provide an accurate historical account of the events of August 1971 on the streets of Ballymurphy,” they said.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams described the decision as a “landmark legal judgment” which provided families with the possibility of getting to the truth.
“The inquests must now be held without delay and the families must be provided with the necessary resources to ensure that all of the facts are uncovered,” he said.
Alex Attwood, the SDLP Assembly member for West Belfast, said that the decision was “a step in the right direction” which vindicated the families’ campaign.
Both politicians said an international inquiry must be held to reveal the full truth behind the killings.
