Laura, here you are:

[1999:] [Death no] 64. March 5, 1971: William Halligan, West Belfast
Civilian, Catholic, 21, single, labourer

The army shot him in a clash between soldiers and civilians just before 1 a.m. in Balaclava Street in the lower Falls area. He lived not far away at Plevna Street. Two other civilians were injured in the incident and the circumstances of the death were disputed.

The Terence Penny Republican Club said he did not have nail or petrol bombs but had been one of a crowd of men who were taunting soldiers. The army said at the time that he had thrown a nail bomb immediately before he was shot. A lieutenant-colonel from the Parachute Regiment told the inquest that there had been serious trouble on the Falls Road and several of his soldiers had been injured. He said petrol and gelignite bombs were thrown at his troops, adding: 'I felt that if I did not take sterner measures soldiers would get hurt.'

He said he warned the crowd with a loudhailer but as he finished speaking a nail bomb landed only a short distance away. He said soldiers were ordered to open fire when they had a target, someone who had been positively identified as being in the act of throwing a missile. He said eight soldiers had been organised into a sniper party and they had fired 15 shots at people who had been identified as targets.

The lieutenant-colonel said one soldier present was Sergeant Michael George Willets, who was killed in an explosion at Springfield Road RUC station two months later. A sergeant who was not named told the inquest that he saw a man in Balaclava Street drawing back his arm to throw a bomb. He said he fired one round and saw the man stagger back, adding that other riflemen were firing at the same time. The sergeant said he also fired a shot at a man who made to throw a bottle and saw the man stagger. He said he saw rthe man walk into Balaclava Street and throw a bottle. He aimed at the man's body, he said, but did not see the result as a petrol bomb exploding obscured his view. He saw another man with a lighted bottle and the man fell backwards after being hit. An RUC constable told the inquest that William Halligan's clothes had a strong smell of petrol.

In 1979 the Halligan family were awarded undisclosed damages after successfully suing the Ministry of Defence. (McKittrick et al., Lost Lives 69)