Battle at Springmartin
2 regiments
History & Significance
The Battle at Springmartin was a series of gun battles in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 13–14 May 1972, as part of The Troubles. It involved the British Army, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the Official Irish Republican Army, and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
The violence began when a car bomb, planted by Ulster loyalists, exploded outside a crowded pub in the mainly Irish nationalist and Catholic district of Ballymurphy. UVF snipers then opened fire on the survivors from an abandoned high-rise flat. This began the worst fighting in Northern Ireland since the suspension of the Parliament of Northern Ireland and the imposition of direct rule from London. For the rest of the night and throughout the next day, local IRA units fought gun battles with both the UVF and British Army. Most of the fighting took place along the interface between the Catholic Ballymurphy and Ulster Protestant Springmartin housing estates, and the British Army base that sat between them.
Seven people were killed in the violence: five civilians (four Catholics, one Protestant), a British soldier and a member of Fianna Éireann. Four of the dead were teenagers.
Shortly after 5:00 PM on Saturday 13 May 1972, a car bomb exploded without warning outside Kelly's Bar, at the junction of the Springfield Road and Whiterock Road. The pub was in a mainly Irish Catholic and nationalist area and most of its customers were from the area. At the time of the blast, the pub was crowded with men watching an association football match between England and West Germany on colour television. Sixty-three people were injured, eight of them seriously. John Moran (19), who had been working at Kelly's as a part-time barman, died of his injuries on 23 May.
At first, the British Army claimed that the blast had been an "accident" caused by a Provisional IRA bomb. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, William Whitelaw, told the House of Commons on 18 May that the blast was caused by a Provisional IRA bomb that exploded prematurely. However, locals suspected that the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA) had planted the bomb. Republican sources said that IRA volunteers would not have risked storing such a large amount of explosives in such a crowded pub. It later emerged that the bomb had indeed been planted by loyalists.
A memorial plaque on the site of the former pub names three members of staff who lost their lives as a result of the bomb and the gun battles that followed. It reads: "...here on 13th May 1972 a no warning Loyalist car bomb exploded. As a result, 66 people were injured and three innocent members of staff of Kelly's Bar lost their lives. They were: Tommy McIlroy (died 13th May 1972), John Moran (died from his injuries 23rd May 1972), Gerard Clarke (died from his injuries 6th September 1989)."
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle at Springmartin lies on Mercia Mudstone Group, bedrock that formed in the Rhaetian. The rock here is mudstone, sandstone and limestone.
- 1 killed; 1 wounded
- Provisional IRA; Official IRA: 1 killed; Unknown wounded
Frequently Asked Questions
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- Battle at Springmartin · Wikidata
- Battle_at_Springmartin · Wikipedia