{"id":425718,"date":"2026-04-30T19:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T19:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/425718\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T19:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T19:39:11","slug":"british-army-soldiers-overreacted-and-lost-control-inquest-into-shooting-dead-of-five-people-in-belfast-finds-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/425718\/","title":{"rendered":"British army soldiers \u2018overreacted\u2019 and lost control\u2019, inquest into shooting dead of five people in Belfast finds \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five people, including three teenagers and a priest, were shot and killed by British soldiers who \u201clost control\u201d in Belfast<\/a> more than 50 years ago, a coroner has found. <\/p>\n

Margaret Gargan (13), David McCafferty (15), John Dougal (16), Patrick Butler (37) and Fr Noel Fitzpatrick (42) were fatally wounded within minutes of each other in the Springhill and Westrock areas of west Belfast on the evening of July 9th, 1972. <\/p>\n

Delivering his inquest into their deaths in the city on Thursday, Judge David Scoffield ruled that none of the five was posing any threat when they were shot and the soldiers used force which was \u201cnot reasonable\u201d. <\/p>\n

Soldiers located in Corry\u2019s Timber Yard on the Springfield Road, \u201cin particular E and A … overreacted to a perceived threat and ultimately lost control\u201d, he said. <\/p>\n

The coroner ruled that Gargan, McCafferty, Butler and Fitzpatrick were \u201cunarmed and posing no risk\u201d, while Dougal was \u201cshot in the back while running away\u201d. <\/p>\n

Each was killed by a single, aimed, high-velocity round, with the exception of Butler, who was fatally wounded by a bullet which passed through Fitzpatrick and then struck him. <\/p>\n

\"JackieJackie Butler, daughter of Paddy Butler, speaks with the media outside Belfast Coroner’s Court. Photograph: Liam McBurney\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

The coroner said a soldier known as Soldier A was responsible for four fatalities \u2013 Fitzpatrick, Butler, McCafferty and Dougal \u2013 and Soldier E for Gargan\u2019s. <\/p>\n

He criticised the Ministry of Defence over multiple missing documents, including the list which would have identified the soldiers, and said it was now \u201cimpossible to conclude what the true identity is of any of the soldiers, especially A and E\u201d. <\/p>\n

The coroner said he expected to refer the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions \u2013 as is required when an offence may have been committed \u2013 but he said there was \u201clittle prospect of any prosecution\u201d. <\/p>\n

Speaking outside the court, relatives of the deceased spoke of their relief that their loved ones had finally been declared innocent, and there were calls for an apology from the UK government and for prosecutions of the soldiers responsible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe burden of blame and prejudice that has lingered for so long has now been lifted, and the record has now been set straight,\u201d said McCafferty\u2019s sister Betty Kennedy. <\/p>\n

Butler\u2019s daughter Jackie said her father\u2019s \u201conly crime was his kindness, helping those who were injured, [and] for that he was wrongly labelled a gunman\u201d.<\/p>\n

A fresh inquest into the deaths was ordered by the North\u2019s Attorney General in 2014, after an original inquest in 1973 returned an open verdict. <\/p>\n

It finished hearing evidence in April 2024, just hours before the cut-off introduced by the former UK government\u2019s Legacy Act \u2013 which the current government is replacing with fresh legislation \u2013 ended all Troubles-era inquests. <\/p>\n

The coroner took more than five hours on Thursday to deliver a summary of his 640-page judgment to a packed courtroom. <\/p>\n

\"RelativesRelatives of those killed in the Springhill and Westrock shootings in 1972, outside the coroner’s court at Laganside, Belfast. Photograph: Liam McBurney\/PA Wire \"RelativesRelatives of the five people killed in the Springhill and Westrock areas in 1972, outside Belfast Coroner’s Court on Thursday. Photograph: Liam McBurney\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

He said the deaths had taken place against the backdrop of the breakdown of an IRA ceasefire on July 9th and \u201csporadic\u201d shooting in the wider area, including around the British army post at Corry\u2019s Timber Yard. <\/p>\n

Two cars \u2013 one or both of which may have been on \u201cIRA business\u201d \u2013 had stopped to \u201cinteract\u201d with each other at the so-called \u201ccircle\u201d area at Westrock Drive and \u201csomething triggered\u201d the soldiers to begin firing at one of the cars. <\/p>\n

The coroner said it was \u201cunclear\u201d what \u201cprecisely gave rise to the decision to commence firing\u201d, but it was \u201clikely\u201d to have been influenced by a \u201chigh state of apprehension\u201d among the soldiers due to the breakdown of the IRA ceasefire and the shooting dead of two of their number earlier that day. <\/p>\n

The coroner wholly rejected claims by the Ministry of Defence that the soldiers had been under a \u201cco-ordinated assault\u201d on their position at Corry\u2019s Timber Yard. <\/p>\n

The coroner apologised to the families of the deceased for the length of time that had passed since their loved ones\u2019 deaths. <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said it acknowledged the coroner\u2019s findings and was \u201cconsidering them carefully\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five people, including three teenagers and a priest, were shot and killed by British soldiers who \u201clost control\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4501,42,43,2443,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-425718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-belfast","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}