Call for IRA to give details of operations at time of Ballymurphy bloodbath

Doug Beattie was speaking after it was revealed that loyalists are preparing to provide details about what they say was a UVF sniper who shot people during the 1971 bloodbath in west Belfast – an event which has long been held to have been the responsibility of the Parachute Regiment.

Mr Beattie called on the IRA to also try and help give “closure” to families of the dead.

In all, 10 Catholic civilians died after being shot in the Ballymurphy/upper Springfield Road area from August 9 to 11.

The shootings occurred at a time of widespread violence as internment was being introduced. Another civilian died of heart problems after an encounter with soldiers.

On Wednesday, it emerged that a group of UVF men will offer information about one of their gunmen and a weapon which may account for some of the shootings that are blamed on the Army.

This information will be conveyed via lawyers and an interlocutor to a coroner, who is currently preparing for a fresh inquest into the 10 killings, set for this September.

PUP leader and former UVF killer Billy Hutchinson said “there were three actors in all of this – the UVF, the IRA and the British Army”, and called on the republicans to give information.

Doug Beattie, MLA for Upper Bann, echoed this, saying the killings occurred as “all hell was being let loose” across Northern Ireland, and that“truth must be delivered by all those involved” in the Ballymurphy violence.

He said it is not yet known if the UVF information will prove accurate, but added: “There is of course a third group that was involved during this period and who could help the families by coming forward with their evidence of what happened – the IRA.

“For them to continue to be silent when it is clear they were involved in various engagements in the Ballymurphy area with loyalist paramilitary groups and the British military shows that whatever is planned for the legacy mechanisms, republican terrorists will not be active participants.”

Mr Hutchinson today told the News Letter he did not know who the UVF men giving information are, what their motivations are, if the gun they were talking about is already held by the authorities, or if the alleged loyalist shooter is still alive.