1971 Scottish soldiers' killings

Coordinates: 54°38′6.46″N 5°59′35.9″W / 54.6351278°N 5.993306°W / 54.6351278; -5.993306
This is a good article. Click here for more information.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

1971 Scottish soldiers' murders
Part of
Provisional IRA

The 1971 Scottish soldiers' killings took place in

pub in Belfast
where they had been drinking, driven to a remote location and shot by the roadside. Three British soldiers had been killed before this, but all had been killed during rioting.

The deaths led to public mourning and protests against the IRA. Pressure to act spurred a political crisis for the

Northern Ireland Government, which led to the resignation of James Chichester-Clark as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
. The British Army raised the minimum age needed to serve in Northern Ireland to 18 in response to this incident. In 2010, a memorial was dedicated to the three soldiers near the site of their deaths.

Three IRA members were later named as being responsible, one of whom was a former British soldier.

Background

British troops had been deployed to Northern Ireland in 1969 as part of

Robert Curtis was the first British soldier shot and killed by the Provisional IRA, on 6 February 1971,[5][6] and two more soldiers were killed over the following month during rioting.[7]

Killings

Brothers John and Joseph McCaig from

Crumlin Road Prison in north Belfast.[8] On 10 March 1971, the three soldiers had been granted an afternoon pass which allowed them to leave their base. McCaughey's younger brother was serving in the same unit but was on duty and unable to join them. The three soldiers were off-duty, unarmed and in civilian clothes. They were drinking in "Mooney's", a Belfast city centre pub in Cornmarket, one of the safer areas of the city for soldiers at this stage of the conflict. One report said that the three soldiers were lured into a car by republican women who promised them a party.[7] The three were taken to the White Brae, Squire's Hill, off the Ligoniel Road in north Belfast. There they were shot dead by Provisional IRA members; two of them in the back of the head and the other in the chest.[9][10]

AWOL. Their bodies were found by children at 21:30.[5][7][10]

Aftermath

The day after the killings, British Home Secretary Reginald Maudling made a statement in the House of Commons in which he informed the house that security arrangements for off-duty soldiers were being reviewed and suggested that the aim of the killers was to provoke the security forces into reprisals. He said:

The battle now joined against the terrorists will be fought with the utmost vigour and determination. It is a battle against a small minority of armed and ruthless men whose strength lies not so much in their numbers as in their wickedness.[12]

Belfast Cenotaph, focus of the public mourning in Belfast

The funerals were held in Scotland with John and Joseph McCaig buried together in Ayr.

British national anthem.[7]

Days later, in retaliation, a bomb planted by loyalists destroyed Squire's Hill Tavern at Ligoniel near where the bodies of the soldiers had been found. The owner denied rumours the soldiers had been drinking in the pub prior to their deaths.[13]

The deaths led to a crisis for the

Government of Northern Ireland with calls for increased security measures. Ian Paisley demanded the Government's resignation, saying "We can no longer tolerate your weakness. You must go before the whole land is deluged with the blood of innocent men and women."[11] On 12 March, 4,000 loyalist shipyard workers took to the streets of Belfast to demand internment.[14] The Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark flew to London to request more troops, and when the numbers were less than what he wanted, he resigned.[15] On 23 March, Brian Faulkner was elected Ulster Unionist Party leader and was appointed Prime Minister the same day.[16]

The British Army raised the minimum age for serving in Northern Ireland to 18 in response to outrage over the death of 17-year-old McCaig.[17][18]

Perpetrators

No one has been convicted of the killings. The Daily Mirror reported in November 2007 that three Provisional IRA members were responsible for the deaths: Martin Meehan (died 2007), who was questioned over the killings but never charged; Patrick McAdorey, who was suspected of killing another soldier in August 1971, hours before he himself was killed in a gun battle;[19] and a third unnamed man. The case of the three soldiers is one of those being re-examined by the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Historical Enquiries Team.[20]

In 2020, a

BBC Spotlight investigation made allegations that Paddy O'Kane (died 2009) was one of those involved in the killings. He had been a member of the Parachute Regiment from 1957 to 1964. O'Kane had been drinking with the soldiers before they were shot, and afterwards he spoke openly about his role in the killings.[21]

Memorial

The mother of the two McCaig brothers visited the site of their deaths in May 1972. She expressed a wish to leave a monument to her sons but was advised that it might well be damaged by vandals. She later said that she was touched by the wreaths and flowers that had been left at the spot.[7]

In 2010 the

Lord Mayor of Belfast Naomi Long and North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds.[23][24]

The memorial at White Brae, Ligoniel, that marks the place of the killings has been vandalised several times since 2011.[25][26]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-330-49388-8. Archived
    from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
  2. ^ "A Chronology of the Conflict – July 1970". CAIN Web Service. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
  3. Daly City
    : Free Ireland Book Club. p. 146.
  4. ISBN 0-86278-359-3
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-0-330-49388-8. Archived
    from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
  6. ISBN 0-7475-3818-2
    .
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-1-84018-504-1
    .
  8. ^ "Malcolm Sutton An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland". CAIN Web Service. Archived from the original on 22 April 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2011.
  9. ISBN 0-8018-6456-9
    . Retrieved 6 March 2011. royal highland fusiliers belfast 1971.
  10. ^ a b c Maggie Barry (9 March 2007). "'I told them to go out and pull a bird...but the girls led them to killers". Daily Mirror. London. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
  11. ^
    Time Magazine. US. Archived from the original
    on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
  12. ^ "BRITISH SOLDIERS, NORTHERN IRELAND (MURDER) HC Deb 11 March 1971 vol 813 cc597-605". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 11 March 1971. Archived from the original on 20 October 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
  13. ^ Belfast Telegraph, 15 March 1971.
  14. ISBN 0-312-29418-2. Archived
    from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
  15. ISBN 0-312-29418-2. Archived
    from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
  16. ISBN 0-7190-6108-3
    .
  17. ^ "Extracts from 'Brits Speak Out', compiled by John Lindsay (1998)". CAIN Web Service. Archived from the original on 6 December 2010. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
  18. ^ "Defence Estimate. 1971–72 (Army), Vote A House of Commons Debate 11 March 1971 vol 813 cc671-742". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 11 March 1971. Archived from the original on 20 October 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
  19. ISBN 978-1-84018-504-1
    .
  20. ^ "Cold Case Cops Probing 'Honeytrap Outrage". Sunday Life. Belfast. 1 August 2006. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
  21. ^ "Para turned IRA man Paddy O'Kane 'central to murders'". BBC News. 25 February 2020. Archived from the original on 8 February 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  22. ^ "Memorial To Murdered Scottish Soldiers Sought". Northern Ireland: 4NI.co.uk. 30 May 2010. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2009.
  23. ^ "Poignant tribute to murdered soldiers". The Newsletter. Northern Ireland. 30 May 2010. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
  24. ^ "Three Scottish Soldiers Memorial". CAIN Web Service. Archived from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  25. ^ "Memorial to murdered Scottish soldiers 'vandalised for fifth time'". BBC. 12 December 2012. Archived from the original on 2 December 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  26. ^ "Memorial to three Scottish soldiers attacked in north Belfast". BBC. 9 June 2014. Archived from the original on 17 December 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2018.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1971_Scottish_soldiers%27_killings&oldid=1197453313"