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16-836: The Springhill massacre was an incident in which five Catholic residents were killed by the British Army in the Springhill estate in West Belfast , Northern Ireland , on 9 July 1972, during the Troubles . Three of the victims were teenagers, including a 13-year-old girl, and another was a Catholic priest waving a white flag as he went to attend one of the injured. 1980s 1990s Civil sectarian conflict, caused by ethno-nationalist divisions, civil rights grievances, and revolutionary Marxist politics, augmented with escalating violence between paramilitary factions and

32-533: A major role in the history of Ireland from the 16th century to the 20th century, especially during the Home Rule Crisis and the Troubles . While religion broadly marks the delineation of these divisions, the contentions were primarily political and they were also related to access to power. For example, while the majority of Irish Catholics had an identity which was independent from Britain's identity and were excluded from power because they were Catholic,

48-594: A memorial also to other area residents killed by the British Army and Loyalist paramilitary groups). Irish Catholics Irish Catholics ( Irish : Caitlicigh na hÉireann ) are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish . They have a large diaspora , which includes over 31 million American citizens , plus over 7 million Irish Australians , of whom around 67% adhere to Catholicism. Divisions between Irish Roman Catholics and Irish Protestants played

64-568: A number of the instigators of rebellions against British rule were actually Protestant Irish nationalists , although most Irish Protestants opposed separatism. In the Irish Rebellion of 1798 , Catholics and Presbyterians , who were not part of the established Church of Ireland , found common cause. Irish Catholics are found in many countries around the world, especially in the Anglosphere . Emigration exponentially increased due to

80-545: The Bloody Sunday mass shooting in Derry just a few months earlier, in which British soldiers shot 26 unarmed Catholic civilians, only half of whom survived; and the even closer-by Ballymurphy massacre the prior year, in which members of the same battalion killed 11 civilians over three days. During the several decades since the Springhill massacre, there has been intermittent pressure-group campaigning by relatives of

96-797: The Great Famine which lasted from 1845 to 1852. In the United States , anti-Irish sentiment and anti-Catholicism was espoused by the Know Nothing movement of the 1850s and other 19th-century anti-Catholic and anti-Irish organizations. By the 20th century, Irish Catholics were well established in the United States and today they are fully-integrated into mainstream American society with two Irish Catholic Presidents, John F. Kennedy and Joe Biden , having been elected. Attorney General for Northern Ireland The original post

112-743: The Northern Ireland Assembly on 12 April 2010, at which point the Attorney General for England and Wales ceased to hold office as Attorney General of Northern Ireland. She instead became Advocate General for Northern Ireland and a vacancy occurred. John Larkin QC became the first politically independent office-holder, taking office on 24 May 2010, when he was appointed by First Minister Peter Robinson and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness . The role and powers of

128-545: The Parachute Regiment took up a position in Corry's timber yard at Springhill, West Belfast, and were seen to be reinforcing it with sandbags. Two cars subsequently drove into the vicinity, and the British Army detachment were observed to open fire upon them, firing two shots at the vehicles. One of the cars drove away at speed, whilst the other one drove a short distance and then stopped, the occupants getting out. On

144-661: The Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British Army , had been ongoing in Northern Ireland since 1969, with several hundred people having been killed or injured. The area of West Belfast was particularly stricken with violent confrontations between elements of the Irish nationalist community and the police and military forces of the British State. West Belfast was increasingly a problem area for

160-541: The IRA statement of the events, claiming that its troops were fired upon first by Provisional Irish Republican Army gunmen, ending a temporary ceasefire in the West Belfast area at that time. A British Army spokesman stated: "There had been a heavy exchange of fire between the IRA and troops, some of the dead and wounded were undoubtedly caught in a crossfire". The next day, 10 July 1972, the British Army stated that gunmen at

176-685: The casualties, seeking a new legal inquiry into the event. In 2014, the Attorney General for Northern Ireland , John Larkin QC , announced that new inquests have been scheduled into the deaths that occurred in the Springhill incident. There are two memorials for the slain, both in Ballymurphy, Belfast : Springhill Massacre Memorial Garden (dedicated on 4 May 1999), and Ballymurphy Gairdin Cuimhneachain (completed 27 November 2005 and

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192-435: The occupants exiting the vehicle, the British Army post opened fire upon them. One of the stopped car's occupants was hit by a bullet in the head and fell seriously wounded. A local resident, Brian Petticrew, seeing the nearby incident, ran over to help the wounded man, but was also fired upon, and hit in the back and the arm. Then this man's brother and a friend ran to the downed occupant, but both were also wounded by gunfire in

208-525: The police and the army given the open hostility of the population towards their presence, and activity from Irish Republican paramilitary forces in the neighbourhood, with the Provisional Irish Republican Army becoming increasingly aggressive in its attacks at the time that the Springhill shooting incident occurred. According to a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) statement, on 10 July 1972, British Army snipers from

224-423: The process. At some point during the incident, a 13-year-old girl, Margaret Gargan, was fatally shot. A parish priest, Father Noel Fitzpatrick, and Patrick Butler, a passer-by, both ran to her assistance. Fitzpatrick was reportedly seen to be waving a white cloth above his head to display himself as a non-combatant, but they were also fired upon and killed. All of the victims were unarmed. The British Army disputed

240-588: The scene had been engaged and killed in the crossfire with its detachment. Two of the five dead at the scene, who were occupants of the stopped vehicle, John Dougal (16), and David McCafferty (15), were reported to be members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army's Youth Wing, Fianna Éireann . An inquest into the five deaths was held in 1973, with the coroner returning an open verdict. The event has since sometimes been called "the forgotten massacre", because it has been overshadowed by

256-613: Was formed in 1921 with the establishment of the Parliament of Northern Ireland and was always held by an Ulster Unionist Party MP. A Deputy Attorney General briefly held office in 1946, when the post was held by Edmond Warnock MP (21 June – 11 September). The Attorney General for England and Wales performed the role of Attorney General for Northern Ireland after the prorogation of the Parliament of Northern Ireland in 1972. These office-holders were always United Kingdom Government Ministers. Justice powers were again devolved to

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