The Ballymurphy massacre was a series of incidents between 9 and 11 August 1971, in which the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment of the British Army killed at least nine civilians in Ballymurphy, Belfast, Northern Ireland, as part of Operation Demetrius (internment without trial).
The stories concern Damien Harkin, eight, hit by an army lorry in 1971; Annette McGavigan, 14, shot by soldiers in 1971; Julie Livingstone, 14, shot by soldiers in 1981; Kathryn Eakin, eight, killed in an IRA bomb in 1972; Henry Cunningham, 16, shot by the Ulster Volunteer Force in 1973; and Kathleen Feeney, 14, shot ...
Of the civilians killed, 61 were children. Only four soldiers were convicted of murder while on duty in Northern Ireland.
From the 1780s, around a third of Army recruits were Irish. Between the 1820s and 1860s, this rose to around 40 percent. They were drawn in particular to serve in the European regiments of Britain's Indian Armies and played an important role in the building of the British Empire.
It has been estimated that during the North American conflict, from the British Army 16% of the rank and file and 31% of the COs were Irishmen.
The report, compiled by Judge Yvonne Murphy after five years of investigative work, reveals that 9,000 children died in mother and baby homes between 1922 and 1998, including three-quarters of all the children born or admitted to a home in one year during the second World War.
Difference in criteria
According to Children of the Troubles, the British Army or the RUC were responsible for 26 per cent of children's deaths, as compared to 10 per cent – based on Lost Lives – among all Troubles fatalities.
Survivors of the mother and baby homes will read about the shocking number of children and babies who died in the institutions. It is understood that up to 9,000 children died in 18 institutions between 1922 and the closure of the last such home in 1998.
Eight people have died at their hands. Of those casualties two deaths, John Boyle and William Hanna at Bal1ysillan, were of innocents. Two other guiltless people have been wounded.
Two boys, both aged 13, immediately came under suspicion. As minors, they could not be named in the media, and to this day are known in reports as Boy A and Boy B, as they were granted lifelong anonymity at their trial. They were the youngest people in the history of the Republic of Ireland to be charged with murder.
Most of these recruits from Belfast and Derry were trained in IRA camps in Donegal. The IRA vigorously denies recruiting children from the age of 12 onwards. However, a number of families of young victims of the Troubles have accused republicans of trying to 'airbrush' the child soldiers out of history.
Siblings, Lisa Cash, Christy Cawley and Chelsea Cawley, aged 18 and 8 respectively, from Tallaght, South County Dublin were killed in their home, in the early hours of 4 September 2022.
Tensions Leading to the Troubles
While Ireland was fully independent, Northern Ireland remained under British rule, and the Catholic communities in cities like Belfast and Derry (legally called Londonderry) complained of discrimination and unfair treatment by the Protestant-controlled government and police forces.
The mother accused of murdering her three young children in a horrific case in Timaru has entered a not guilty plea on the grounds she was insane. Lauren Anne Dickason allegedly killed her six-year-old daughter Liane and two-year-old twins Maya and Karla at a property in the Canterbury town on September 16, 2021.
The conflict began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the Troubles mostly took place in Northern Ireland, at times violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England, and mainland Europe.
The Irish state and Catholic Church established Magdalene laundries and Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland. These institutions forcibly housed unwed women who became pregnant, the last of which closed in 1996. It is estimated that 35,000 women were forced into these institutions and 6,000 babies died in their care.
Hundreds of children died in the Tuam home over a 36-year-period. Public outrage over Ms Corless' findings led the Irish government to set up a commission of investigation into mother and baby homes.
Beyond infancy the leading cause of childhood death during this period (26.5%) was accident and injury. Most were unintentional accidents, children 1–4yrs being most susceptible (3.9/100,000 vs. 2.8/100,000 1–14yrs).
IRISH INFANTRY, THE SHARP POINT OF THE BAYONET
Built with fighting spirit, tradition, and Irish character, we are the only Irish Infantry Regiment of the line in the British Army. We recruit people of the right quality and calibre right across the island of Ireland, all parts of the UK, and beyond.
Why did so many Irishmen join the British army? The answer is fairly simple: poverty. Over 40% of Irish recruits were labourers, which usually meant they were unemployed. With an attractive enlistment bounty, regular pay, clothing and food, the army offered a better life for many.
The Great Famine in the 1840s - a result of the potato disease that killed the crop most Irish depended on to survive - caused a million to leave Ireland, with many going to Britain and the USA.