On This Day / August 10, 1971

Summary: On This Day – 10th August 1971, Northern Ireland reeled from the deadly aftermath of internment as killings, arrests and widespread destruction deepened the crisis. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.

Internment: 14 Killed | On This Day – 10th August 1971

TWELVE people including a local priest were shot dead in Belfast yesterday in the bloodiest 16 hours in the city’s streets since August 1969.

The NI death toll was brought to 14 when a UDR man was gunned down at Clady, County Tyrone and a man was shot dead by the Army in Armagh.

Fr Mullan (40) and a curate at St John’s Church, Falls Road died on an errand of mercy. He was home at Springfield Park when he got a call to attend a wounded man at Moyard Park.

He had administered the last rites to the man when he was hit by a burst of machine-gun fire. Another man who ran to his assistance is believed to have been killed by a second burst of automatic fire from the direction of Vere Foster School.

The wave of death and destruction in the city started early yesterday with the shooting of Private Malcolm Hadden (21) in Ardoyne.

Before lunchtime 25 year old Ardoyne man, Patrick McAdorey was shot dead by a civilian sniper. At the same time a youth was shot dead by the Army [at a barricade]. He was named as Frank McGuinness (17) of Riverdale.

300 Lifted in Dawn Swoops

BUSINESS and professional men, tradesmen and labourers were all among the more than 300 taken from their beds in Army-RUC raids on their homes before dawn yesterday.

Leaders of the People’s Democracy were among those detained and include Michael Farrell, John McGuffin and John D Murphy.

The raids at Upper Andersonstown started at 4.30 a.m. and there were numerous complaints of detainees being ill-treated and in some cases beaten up as they were dragged to Army vehicles.

Houses Set on Fire

AS VIOLENCE flared throughout Belfast and Protestant extremist guns came out, intimidation of Catholic families was reported and scores of houses were reported to have been burned down.

One of the worst infernos was at Farringdon Gardens in Ardoyne where several Catholic families to only minutes to get out before the torch was put to their homes.

One man was refused to take permission to take his dog with him and the animal died in the blazing house.

Army camps in the South are being prepared to accommodate as refugees the dependants of men interned in the North.

(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: CONVINCED that only internment – successfully used, north and south, in the 1950s – would crush the IRA, Faulkner had won the conditional support of the British PM, Edward Heath, at Downing Street on August 5.

However, Heath warned Faulkner that if internment was seen to ‘alienate the minority’, Direct Rule would swiftly follow.)

On This Day – 10th August 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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