The
Horrors of Halloween eve
a
short report based on a confirmend event during The
Troubles, (the common name for
the ethno-nationalist conflict
in Northern
Ireland that spilled over at various times into the Republic
of Ireland, England and mainland
Europe), by
Britton’s
Parade, West Belfast. On Halloween in 1971 members of the British
army parachute regiment interrupted a fund raising dance, which was
organized by the charity organization Relatives for justice (RFJ),
and mostly attended by catholic youths, resulting in the tragic death
of the ordinary seventeen year old catholic Eamon McCormick.
The dance was held at the St. Peters School hall in Britton’s
Parade and was organized to raise money for the relatives of two
sisters, Dorothy Maguire and Maura Meenan, who were shot dead by
British soldiers on 23 October of 1971. Several unionist/loyalist
gunman were supervising the, as seen by them, suspicious meeting from
the roof of a building overlooking the streets around the hall. As
soon as they opened fire the nearby British army paratroopers tried
to force their way into the hall. Aground the present tenseness
between the British army and the Catholics the young people in the
hall reacted by barricading the entrance. Rubber bullets were fired
at the youths inside the hall, who resisted with chairs, while other
youths attacked the paratroopers on the streets outside.
Eamon
McCormick was going down a street towards the hall when he saw the
trouble outside and decided for safety's sake to go into a house in
the street to wait until things had settled down. As he thought
it was safe, he walked down the pathway of the house and got shot.
The lethal bullet, after it had ripped through Eamon's liver and
shattered his spine, had pierced the exterior wall of a
house. Residents recovered it later. Eyewitnesses said the
youth was not armed when he was shot, and the bullet that hit him was
fired by a British soldier positioned on the roof of a timber yard
less than 100 yards away. He died in hospital nearly three months
later. The British army Press Office released no statement
concerning the shooting.
The
Horrors of Halloween eve
a
short report based on a confirmend event during The
Troubles, (the common name for
the ethno-nationalist conflict
in Northern
Ireland that spilled over at various times into the Republic
of Ireland, England and mainland
Europe), by
Britton’s
Parade, West Belfast. On Halloween in 1971 members of the British
army parachute regiment interrupted a fund raising dance, which was
organized by the charity organization Relatives for justice (RFJ),
and mostly attended by catholic youths, resulting in the tragic death
of the ordinary seventeen year old catholic Eamon McCormick.
The dance was held at the St. Peters School hall in Britton’s
Parade and was organized to raise money for the relatives of two
sisters, Dorothy Maguire and Maura Meenan, who were shot dead by
British soldiers on 23 October of 1971. Several unionist/loyalist
gunman were supervising the, as seen by them, suspicious meeting from
the roof of a building overlooking the streets around the hall. As
soon as they opened fire the nearby British army paratroopers tried
to force their way into the hall. Aground the present tenseness
between the British army and the Catholics the young people in the
hall reacted by barricading the entrance. Rubber bullets were fired
at the youths inside the hall, who resisted with chairs, while other
youths attacked the paratroopers on the streets outside.
Eamon
McCormick was going down a street towards the hall when he saw the
trouble outside and decided for safety's sake to go into a house in
the street to wait until things had settled down. As he thought
it was safe, he walked down the pathway of the house and got shot.
The lethal bullet, after it had ripped through Eamon's liver and
shattered his spine, had pierced the exterior wall of a
house. Residents recovered it later. Eyewitnesses said the
youth was not armed when he was shot, and the bullet that hit him was
fired by a British soldier positioned on the roof of a timber yard
less than 100 yards away. He died in hospital nearly three months
later. The British army Press Office released no statement
concerning the shooting.