Lyr Add: the Ballymurphy Massacre Song

Subject: Lyr Add: the Ballymurphy Massacre Song
From: Felipa
Date: 08 Aug 21 - 04:54 PM

Between 9 and 11 Aug, 1971 civilians were killed by troops in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast. In 2021, a coroners' report found that the ten people killed were innocent of any terrorist offences. The song names another person, milkman Paddy McCarthy who suffered a heart attack at the scene.

BALLYMURPHY MASSACRE SONG
Gerard McConnell

Before the break of dawn on August 9th, nineteen and seventy one,
You came to take our men and our boys, but worse was yet to come,
You came at us with your guns and your orders, and a guaranteed free rein,
You took eleven innocent lives from us, then you butchered their good names,

CHORUS
Oh we just want the truth, that you're trying to hide; you know that we wont go away,
For all of Ballymurphy's innocent victims; the wounded,the murdered and slain,
It's been such a long time and you hoped we'd forgot, but the truth will come out in the end,
For a proud and unbroken people, with a spirit you can't break or bend,

Father Mullan was blessing the wounded, while he waved white baby clothes,
You cut him down in cold blood, while he wore his clerical robes,
And young Frank Quinn, just 19 years, went to see what he could do,
And as he bravely went to Father Mullan's aid, you killed him in cold blood too,

Then as the crowd began to gather, all around about the Manse,
You opened fire at the gathering, God they didn't stand a chance,
And when the Para guns stopped firing, Dan Teggart lay there dead,
A man with thirteen children, shot fourteen times with lead,

Noel Philips lay there wounded; he was crying out for aid,
Joan Connolly tried to help him, and just for that you blew off half of her face,
And you left her lying bleeding; she was wounded fatally,
Eight children without a mother, they only found out while watching TV,

CHORUS

Now you came out in your armoured car, to lift the wounded and the dead,
And at point-blank range executed young Noel with two in the back of the head,
You lifted an injured Joe Murphy, and beat him, and left him nearly dead,
And you shot him with a rubber bullet, into the hole that you'd just made with lead,

Then you beat the bodies of the living and dead, with your fists and your boots and your guns,
Was it bloodlust, or drugs or orders, your orders to "shock and stun"?
But your bloodlust just didn't end there; there were still two days to go,
You shot Eddie Doherty the very next day, as he walked from his parents home;

Still four more men were yet to die by your bullets and your fear,
John Laverty, Joe Corr and John McKerr; you shot them from far and from near,
And for Paddy McCarthy, a heart attack; he was wounded, harassed and then beat,
But your mock execution, well that did the trick, without aid, made to lie on the street,

CHORUS

It's been such a long time, and you hoped we'd forgot, but the truth will come out in the end,
We are the kin of the Ballymurphy Massacre dead,
And we'll fight for the truth 'til the very end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkN8qnSmnRg&t=5s

https://www.judiciaryni.uk/ballymurphy-inquest

BBC News 11 May 2021

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-05-13/debates/D8E973EF-4E0B-4897-BCF6-B9BF2EF2FEFB/BallymurphyInquestFindings

Subject: Lyr Add: Ballymurphy Massacre
From: Felipa
Date: 08 Aug 21 - 05:04 PM

Another song on the same subject

BALLYMURPHY MASSACRE
T. Docherty

Was in Ballymurphy in August '71
Eleven innocent people they were cut down by the gun
By the Paras so brutal. First they killed a priest
Father Mullen he was shot down in the back by the beast

CHORUS

Ballymurphy we will fight on for our dead
Until we gain justice for the blood that they have shed
Whitehall, your lies now they must cease
And the souls of our fallen may forever be at peace

2
Ten more would follow in Father Hugh's fate
Amongst them Joan Connolly a mother of eight
Shot in the head and left where she fell
Those fatherless soldiers their names to us tell

CHORUS

3
For three bloody days they murdered nine more
Eleven was their tally they were proud of their score
But their bloodlust was not sated they would do it all again
So they set their sights on Derry where they slaughtered fourteen men

CHORUS

4
Many more were tortured and then were thrown in jail;
Internment, it had started. but it would surely fail
For the stand against oppression it could never be lost
Now tell the world the truth, for we all know the cost

CHORUS X 2

Pádraig Mór on youtube

CORRECTION TO THE FIRST MESSAGE ON THREAD: Paddy Murphy was employed as a community worker. He was delivering milk on the occasion of his death because supplies had been disrupted.
http://www.ballymurphymassacre.com/cms/paddy-mccarthy/