Margaret Gargan
Margaret Gargan 13 years, Westrock Drive,
Ballymurphy, west Belfast, shot dead on 9 July 1972, by members of the
British Army’s Parachute Regiment. Soldiers firing from the same
positions also shot dead John Dougal (16), Father Noel Fitzpatrick (a
Catholic priest), Patrick Butler (38) and David McCafferty (14).
Several others were also seriously injured. Subsequently the tragedy
became know as "Springhill massacre". Margaret Gargan had a twin sister
and both girls were the oldest children in a family of eight.
In the early evening of 9 July 1972 a ceasefire between the IRA and
British Government, in place since the end of June 1972, ended. The
events which caused it’s ending began in the Lenadoon housing estate,
also in west Belfast, during the day after a large force of British
soldiers prevented a number of Catholic families from moving their
furniture into new homes on the estate. The Ulster Defence Association,
a unionist paramilitary grouping, had previously threatened violence if
Catholic families were allowed to take up residence in the lower part
of the estate, which they saw as their territory. The British Army
responded to the UDA threat by placing barbed wire entanglements,
armoured cars and hundreds of troops around the area in Lenadoon where
the Catholic families had been allocated homes. When the families
approached the British Army cordon scuffles broke, and an armoured car
rammed a lorry carrying the belongings of one family. The situation
quickly escalated with soldiers firing scores of rubber bullets. Within
minutes a full-scale riot had erupted with running battles between
British troops and local residents. The IRA, apparently failing to
resolve the situation with the British authorities, engaged the British
troops with small arms fire. As the gun-battle intensified IRA
volunteers from other parts of the city close to the Lenadoon area
arrived in the district to bolster the local IRA Company. The fire
fight continued late into the evening.
While the fighting in Lenadoon raged other nationalist/republican areas
in Belfast remained relatively quiet until around 9pm, when without
provocation or warning several British Army snipers in positions in a
timber yard overlooking the Springhill area of Greater Ballymurphy
opened indiscriminate gunfire on residents moving about the area. John
Dougal was the sniper’s first fatally, shot as he attempted to rescue
another youth, shot and wounded moments earlier. The second victim
killed was Margaret Gargan, who was shot as she stood talking to
girlfriends. The third fatality was Father Noel Fitzpatrick, who had
been brought to the scene by Patrick Butler and David McCafferty to
give the last Rites to an injured man. The latter three victims were
approaching the scene near where John Dougal was shot when a sniper
fired a single bullet, which penetrated Fr. Fitzpatrick head before
entering the body of Patrick Butler, killing both men instantly. Young
David McCafferty was shot dead as he tried to pull Fr. Fitzpatrick to
his feet. The snipers also seriously injured several others. The
sniping into the area continued for some hours.
As stated, there had been no trouble in the Ballymurphy area before the
British Army snipers opened fire, the majority of IRA officers from
area being in Lenadoon at the time of the assault. Hearing of the
attack the IRA officers returned to Ballymurphy and promptly engaged
the snipers in the timber yard. A fierce gun-battle then erupted,
lasting into the early hours of 10 July.
The British Army Press Office in a statement issued later distorted the
sequence of events by detailing the killings had occurred during the
gun-battle between the IRA and British soldiers and not sometime
beforehand. They also claimed their soldiers had hit six gunmen.
The sequence of events set out in the statement and claims to have shot
gunmen were rubbished by those injured and residents.
In the 1990s relatives of those killed and injured in Ballymurphy on
the evening of 9 July 1972 produced a small booklet, ‘The Springhill
Massacre’ to highlight their case.
Nelly Gargan, Margaret’s mother, interviewed in the booklet described her child and the circumstances of her death.
‘My daughter Margaret was one of two twins. Her other sister was called
Bernadette. It was Bernadette who seemed to find herself in the midst
of the troubles, not Margaret. When there was trouble Margaret always
wanted to go home. That's what happened that night. She was 13 when she
was murdered. She would not have been 14 until that December, only a
little child really. She was the type who loved to wear trousers. She
just didn't like frocks or dresses. Even when she went to school she
used to change out of her uniform in the toilets so she would not have
to walk home in a skirt. She was well thought of in school and it was
the Head Sister who sent the only photo I have of her.
Her whole life centred around the Community Centre where her father
worked running the bingo. Margaret helped in the Centre by running the
sweetie shop, she wouldn't let you off with a penny even me. Just
before she was murdered she went on a trip to Dublin where she was
taken on a tour of Kilmainham Jail. When she came home all she would
talk about was Thomas Clarke. In the mornings she would come into my
room and awaken me with a cup of tea, but the real reason she was
coming in was to show me pictures she had drawn of Thomas Clarke's
face. One morning she came in and she had drawn his face on a hanky.
On the day of the shooting she was down working in the Centre. She came
in that night and asked me if I was going out but I said no. She asked
why didn't I go round to St John's with Mary McGarry. I told her I had
no money. She gave me a pound so Mary and me went round to St John's.
Bernadette and Colette Tate were minding the kids. We were sitting in
St John's having two bottles of Tuborg Gold and Tommy Best came in and
said to me, Nelly you better get home. There is shooting in your
street. Tommy Best had to bring us down along the hedges to get us onto
the Whiterock Road where bullets were flying down past St John's. When
I got down into the Whiterock the furthest I could get to was our
Peggy's in Whiterock Crescent and when I went to go up the street the
shooting was terrible so I had to turn back again. Eventually we got
the kids round to our house then Harry came in and said Margaret had
been shot. He said, I don't think she's bad, but I knew she was dead.
He didn't have to tell me she was dead. I said, you're a liar, she's
dead. So a fellow called Arthur Neeson got her body out. He got her out
in a wee car, brought her down to the Royal (hospital) but she was
already dead. Arthur Neeson lifted her off the street and brought her
through Maggie Meenan's house.’
One of Margaret’s young girl friends chatting to her at the time she
was shot also described the shooting. ‘We were only sitting talking you
know the way wee girls talk about things. Next thing she fell down. We
never heard the shot. Within a couple of seconds she was lying on the
ground. It all happened so quickly. Then everybody started to scream.
Then we got pulled inside. The shooting continued and it was a while
before Margaret’s body got pulled in.’
Mrs Gargan said after they were told of her daughter’s death they went
to a friend’s home in the area and stayed there for the night. ‘When
they went to bring the bodies up the street that night’ she said ‘the
men that drove the hearses refused to drive them up so two men in the
Whiterock went down and drove them up. There were two coffins,
Margaret's and Paddy Butler's. The funny part was while she lay in the
house, if a woman came into the house there was no shooting but if a
man came in the shooting would start again. That shooting went on for
three days from the 9th July to 12th July non-stop.
She was a great child, a great wee girl. She would have done anything
for you. She'd have went anywhere for you. I can't say there's anybody
that said they didn't like her. It affected the oldest ones, especially
our Harry. Our Harry and her were very close and it affected him
terribly. I got £68 (compensation), which didn't even bury her - the
people in the Whiterock buried her. The Army says they done it at the
inquest. They tried to say she was a 21-year old gunman because she had
jeans on her. There were no apologies or nothing. In fact, I never even
got her clothes back.’
An inquest into Margaret death and the four others killed that evening was held in July 1973.
Most of the soldiers involved in the shootings did not attend the
hearing. A military representative read out all their statements, the
soldiers being identified only by a letter of the alphabet. It was
revealed that seven soldiers had been involved in the shootings, all
claimed they fired on gunmen, however despite it being a clear bright
evening not one of the soldiers could identify any other feature about
the gunmen other than they were carrying a weapons. All the soldiers
emphasised in their statements they had not seen nor shot at any priest.
Over a dozen civilian witnesses also give evidence at the hearing
disputing the soldiers’ version of events. All stated it was the
British soldiers situated on the roof of the a timber yard over looking
Westrock Drive who had opened fire without warning, and that there had
been no shooting in area beforehand.
Although civilian witnesses attended the inquest and refuted the
soldiers’ statements, several important witnesses, including some of
those wounded, were not called to give evidence.
Forensic evidence revealed that none of those killed had been in contact with firearms.
An RUC detective admitted to the hearing that there had been no
investigations into the killing, citing the area as too dangerous to
carry this out.
The jury returned an Open Verdict.
No British soldier was ever charged in connection with the killing of
Margaret Gargan, or any of the other killings that day.
Sadly on 27 April 1992, Nelly Gargan died
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