{"id":55471,"date":"2026-06-03T17:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T17:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/55471\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T17:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T17:31:12","slug":"starmer-apologises-for-british-army-overreaction-in-1972-killing-of-five-people-in-belfast-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/55471\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer apologises for British army \u2018overreaction\u2019 in 1972 killing of five people in Belfast \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK<\/a> prime minister Keir Starmer<\/a> has apologised on behalf of the British state to the families of five Irish people shot dead in Belfast<\/a> in 1972 by British soldiers who had \u201clost control\u201d.<\/p>\n

Starmer said recent findings from a coroners inquiry into the deaths, which included three teenagers and a Catholic priest, were \u201csobering\u201d. The coroner found that the British soldiers<\/a> had \u201coverreacted\u201d and at least four of those shot dead were unarmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the duty of the state to hold itself to the highest standard,\u201d Starmer told the British House of Commons in London on Wednesday at the outset of the weekly prime ministers questions slot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government accepts and deeply regrets these findings, and recognises their gravity. On behalf of the government, I want to apologise unreservedly to the families for what happened and for the grief and trauma that they have endured since the tragic deaths of their loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s ministry of defence had previously claimed the soldiers were repelling a \u201cco-ordinated assault\u201d when they fired, which was rejected by the coroner in April\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

The July 9th, 1972, deaths \u2013 six months after Bloody Sunday<\/a> \u2013 were among the most notorious of the Troubles and became known as the Springhill Westrock massacre, after the Belfast estates adjacent to where the shootings happened.<\/p>\n

Margaret Gargan (13), David McCafferty (15), John Dougal (16), Patrick Butler (37) and Fr Noel Fitzpatrick (42) were all killed within minutes of each other that evening by two unidentified British soldiers who targeted them with single shots from high velocity weapons.<\/p>\n

Dougal was running away at the time and was shot through the back. The other four were unarmed \u2013 the coroner said it was unclear if Dougal had been armed. The youngest victim, Gargan, was shot in the face as she spoke to her teenage friends.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick and Butler were killed by the same bullet as they crossed a road. McCafferty, who was said to be a member of the IRA\u2019s youth wing but was unarmed at the time, was shot in the back as he attempted to retrieve the priest\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

Tensions were high at the time as there had been sporadic trouble in the area following the breakdown of an IRA ceasefire, while two British soldiers had also been shot dead in the North earlier that day.<\/p>\n

But the coroner found the soldiers \u201cdid not use reasonable force\u201d. Two British soldiers, known as A and E, fired all of the fatal shots. The coroner found that soldier A killed four of the victims, while E killed the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll fatal shootings were found to have been carried out by soldiers acting in breach of the \u2018yellow card\u2019 rules governing the use of lethal force,\u201d said the coroner\u2019s report. \u201cNone of the deceased should have been shot in the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the release of the report, the victims\u2019 relatives said the \u201cburden of blame and prejudice that has lingered for so long\u201d over their loved ones had been lifted.<\/p>\n

Separately, and a few minutes before Starmer\u2019s formal apology, the UK government\u2019s Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, told the Commons that he would raise with the Irish Government the issue of whether explosives from a Meath factory had been diverted to sustain the IRA\u2019s bombing campaigns early in the Troubles.<\/p>\n

Alex Burghart, the Tory shadow secretary for Northern Ireland, said reports suggested that much of the IRA\u2019s early bombmaking materials originated from the Irish Industrial Explosives facility in Enfield.<\/p>\n

He said Benn should insist that the Republic holds a public inquiry into the issue, especially as the State had pressed the UK over alleged collusion in the North.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will raise it with the Irish authorities,\u201d said Benn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK prime minister Keir Starmer has apologised on behalf of the British state to the families of five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[10346,27236,2108,11223,27237,94,5,6],"class_list":["post-55471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-belfast","tag-bloody-sunday","tag-british-army","tag-hilary-benn","tag-irish-republican-army","tag-keir-starmer","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116687371370289635","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}