On This Day / July 14, 1971

Summary: On This Day – 14th July 1971, another British soldier was killed in Belfast while the SDLP prepared to quit Stormont over the Derry shootings. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.

Soldier Shot Dead | On This Day – 14th July 1971

ANOTHER soldier was shot dead – the second within 48 hours – in an ambush on a Parachute Regiment patrol at Upper Andersonstown in Belfast early this morning.

Both rifle and automatic fire was directed at the Land Rover.

The ambush came only hours after a statement in Dublin yesterday by the Provisional wing of the IRA accepting responsibility for the killing of a 30-year- old private in the First Battalion Royal Green Jackets who was hit by a sniper’s bullet at an observation post on the roof of a mill on the Falls Road on Monday.

The IRA statement said the shooting was in retaliation for ‘the murder of two Irish citizens in Derry last week’ and threatened ‘further retaliatory action in due course’

It added: ‘Let bullies beware; this is not August, 1969’.

Nineteen arrests were made on a day of unrest and sporadic street disturbances in Ballymurphy yesterday when rubber bullets and CS gas were fired to disperse crowds of youths attacking an army post and where women demonstrated by heckling soldiers and banging dustbin lids.

Death Probe Call Blocked

MR GERRY Fitt, SDLP leader, ‘wasn’t optimistic’ that an official public inquiry will be ordered into the shooting by soldiers of two Derry men last Thursday.

But after hour-long talks in London with Lord Balneil, Minister of State for Defence, he said he was reasonably confident that the inquest on Mr Seamus Cusack and Mr Desmond Beattie would be ‘speeded up’ and that all facilities will be afforded those who wished to give evidence.

The SDLP will withdraw from Stormont and set up ‘alternative assembly’ unless it gets an assurance that an official inquiry will take place

Tourists Shy Away

FEWER tourists than ever are visiting NI this year and the numbers are likely to dwindle even further.

This is the opinion of hoteliers throughout the Six Counties, hardly any of whom are fully booked up during the July holiday fortnight which is normally the busiest part of the season.

In Bangor, Mr Malachy Lennon, manager of the Royal Hotel, said the people involved in the tourist industry were facing disaster.

In Newcastle, the Slieve Donard Hotel said its bookings were substantially down.

(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: THEIR failure to secure an impartial inquiry into the military shooting of the two men in Derry would signal the final abandonment of Stormont by its anti-partition representatives.

For the SDLP, elected on a platform of participation in the state institutions, this sudden decision posed major difficulties, especially as Brian Faulkner had just offered them a role in a new committee system at Stormont.)

On This Day – 14th July 1971

Further Reading on Irish History:

List of other On This Day columns

Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive

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