On This Day / August 9, 1971
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
August 9, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 9th August 1971, Belfast faced mounting violence as appeals for peace grew amid warnings that Northern Ireland stood on the brink of disaster. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Violence Grips Belfast | On This Day – 9th August 1971
ONE soldier was killed and two others wounded by gunfire; five youths were injured when gas cylinders on a lorry which had been set on fire exploded; several vehicles were hijacked and burned; nailbombs were hurled at military patrols and the Army fired rubber bullets in confrontations with youths.
The dead soldier was shot in Ardoyne. He was the eleventh soldier shot dead in NI this year.
Meanwhile three MPs were last night demanding that a murder charge be preferred against the soldier who shot dead Mr Harry Thornton. [Mr Thornton, an innocent worker, was shot dead when his van backfired.]
Priests’ Appeal Over Derry March
THIS morning the Apprentice Boys of Derry will receive letters signed by thirteen Catholic priests in the city asking them to call off the Apprentice Boys’ march on Thursday ‘in the interests of Christian charity and peace.’
They state: ‘The situation in our city is worse today than it was two years ago…’
Editorial: At the point of despair
BELFAST is at the point of despair. Fresh outbursts of violence, sparked off by the shooting down by the British military of a civilian on his way to work, must leave the community wondering if there is any way out of the morass of torment which now affects us; if there is any peace initiative which has been overlooked; any move still left to take us away from the edge of the abyss. … Violence begs violence. …The situation is now agonising.
In the search for measures to control the situation, the Stormont Government is being urged to adopt methods which would merely provoke further disorder. … The days to come are filled with peril.
This is probably the final phase of the long tragedy of the Ulster Plantation, of the failure of the Partition experiment and of intolerant and sectarian government.
The time has come for tripartite talks between London, Dublin and Belfast with a search for a constitutional solution if the situation here is not to deteriorate any further. …The decision to allow the Apprentice Boys’ parade through Derry shows how little appreciation there is at Westminster of the imminence of disaster.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: THE Irish News leader-writer on this day 50 years ago had no inkling that the crisis was about to reach the point of no return with the calamitous decision of premier Brian Faulkner to introduce internment on that fatal August 9.
There was an immediate upsurge of violence and 17 people were killed in the next 24 hours including the 10 innocent victims shot dead by paratroopers in the Ballymurphy Massacre, with an 11th victim dying of a heart attack.)
On This Day – 9th August 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.