‘Strong hope’ coroner will vindicate Ballymurphy victims

There is “strong hope” that families of the victims of the Ballymurphy massacre in west Belfast will see their loved ones vindicated as they await the coroner’s findings, according to the parish priest.

Fr Paddy McCafferty PP of Corpus Christi, Ballymurphy said there has been 50 years of “anguish” in the lead up to fresh inquests into the deaths of 10 people shot dead in August 1971.

Coroner Justice Keegan said she will deliver her findings on May 11 into the shootings involving the British army.

Speaking about the inquests and how they affected the families, Fr McCafferty said: “It was horrendous for them. I was there for some of it and it was heart-breaking, reliving the horrible details of the inquest, the injuries that were inflicted on their loved ones, it was awful, absolutely horrific.

“They went willingly into the process, knowing how traumatising it would be, to get a determination that these were innocent people who were slaughtered,” he said.

“We’re hopeful now that on May 11 the coroner will publicly, before the whole world, say these people were killed unlawfully and they were innocent people.”