Northern Ireland

Ballymurphy inquest hears from woman who watched killings from bedroom window

Relatives of people shot dead in Ballymurphy in August 1971 leave Belfast Coroners Court after hearing evidence at the inquest. Picture by Hugh Russell
Relatives of people shot dead in Ballymurphy in August 1971 leave Belfast Coroners Court after hearing evidence at the inquest. Picture by Hugh Russell Relatives of people shot dead in Ballymurphy in August 1971 leave Belfast Coroners Court after hearing evidence at the inquest. Picture by Hugh Russell

A woman has described watching out her bedroom window as a soldier shot two people as they lay on the ground.

Ann Callaghan was 18 years old when four people were shot dead in an area facing her home close to the Henry Taggart army base in west Belfast in 1971.

They were Joan Connolly, Joseph Murphy, Noel Phillips and Daniel Teggart.

Ms Callaghan was giving evidence to the inquest into the deaths of 11 people in Ballymurphy in the days after the introduction of internment.

She said she watched a soldier leave the base and cross the road to the entrance to the Manse field and shoot two people several times as they lay on the ground.

She said her father Joseph, now deceased, had been a British soldier and explained to her what was happening.

Ms Callaghan said the soldier used his rifle to fire at two figures, saying she recalled the barrel of the weapons being moved in a figure-of-eight motion, with the bodies jumping with each impact and their legs kicking in the air.

Earlier, the inquest heard recent statements made by two women who each lost a parent in the shootings that day.

Briege Voyle, whose mother Joan Connolly was shot dead, said the mother-of-eight honestly believed the soldiers would not harm her.

Alice Harper said she went to the Henry Taggart base three times to try and find her father, Daniel Teggart, and one soldier at the base told her "We've no time for f-ing arresting, just killing."