In February 1971 Paul McCartney released the single "Another Day" in the UK. What was to come in Northern Ireland became all too familiar, and for many, it was just another day in anything but paradise…
February 1971 began with, under pressure from the unionist government of Northern Ireland, the British Army conducting a series of house searches in Catholic areas of Belfast. Serious rioting and gun battles took place during the searches. The unrest was to continue for three days.
On the 6th of February, British soldiers shot dead Catholic civilian Bernard Watt in Ardoyne. Mr Watt had been socialising in the Ardoyne area that evening. At approximately 11 pm a crowd of men had gathered at the junction of Crumlin Road and Butler Street, with soldiers from the Flax Street army base attempting to disperse them. Mr Watt and his friend left the club where they had been drinking and joined the crowd at the junction. Soldiers then fired shots and Mr Watt was killed. The soldiers involved in the shooting of Bernard Watt (named at the original inquest as A, B, C and D) have never been traced. The version of events presented by them to the Royal Military Police shortly after the shooting was that they had opened fire on a man carrying an oblong, metal object which he appeared to be about to throw.
Reported IRA member James Saunders was also killed in the Oldpark area of Belfast, with claims that he was armed at the time of the shooting, as a gun battle ensued. There were serious rioting and gun battles in the early hours of the morning in the Ardoyne, New Lodge Road, and Ballymurphy areas of Belfast. Rioting also took place in Derry, with several commercial premises in the city centre being damaged.
Shortly after, the IRA shot dead British soldier Robert Curtis during rioting in New Lodge. He was the first on-duty British soldier killed in the Troubles, and he was the first British soldier killed by the IRA since 1921. The gunman responsible is believed to be Provisional IRA member Billy Reid, who was killed later that year in a gunfight. Now retired, Lieutenant Colonel David Hughes was standing alongside Gunner Robert Curtis when he was shot dead at Lepper Street in north Belfast. He spoke to The Irish News in 2021 about how Gunner Curtis lost his life.
"He was just a young lad and I had him with me, he was trustworthy and he was my runner. He was a nice gentle guy, unassuming, he was not a roughty, toughty squaddie.”
The former officer said on the night Gunner Curtis was killed his unit had been ordered to assist colleagues in the Queen's Regiment, which was nearby. The unit was brought in after widespread rioting in the area. Mr Hughes said the job of his men was to flush the rioters out.
"The idea was to push these boys up the road so they could be snatched. We didn't see anybody and we came back down the road and there was a bonfire burning and people were out and throwing stones and that's when the shots were fired."
He said the volley of shots that claimed the life of Gunner Curtis was the second burst of gunfire aimed at his unit, which suffered several casualties that night.
The next day, James Chichester-Clark, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, declared that "Northern Ireland is at war with the Irish Republican Army Provisionals".
On Monday, the 8th of February, the UVF exploded a bomb at the statue of Wolf Tone in St Stephen's Green, Dublin. The Tone figure was shattered, disintegrating into four pieces, and leaving only the legs on the plinth. No one was injured by the blast, however, windows in the nearby Shelbourne Hotel were damaged. The St Stephen’s Green memorial was the second Wolfe Tone monument to have been damaged by an explosion within the past year. The monument at Bodenstown was damaged the previous year in an incident for which the UVF claimed responsibility. The Wolfe Tone memorial in St Stephen’s Green was unveiled on November 18th, 1967, by the President, Mr de Valera.
The 9th of February 1971 saw further deaths. Five men, two of them BBC engineers, the others construction workers, were killed near a BBC transmitter on Brougher Mountain, County Tyrone in a landmine attack carried out by the Irish Republican Army. The five men were George Beck (43), John Eakins (52), Harry Edgar (26), David Henson (24), and William Thomas (35), who were on their way to inspect the transmitter. It was believed that a British Army mobile patrol, which had been visiting the site, was the intended target.
Amongst the violence in Northern Ireland in February 1971, there were also some political developments. The Housing Executive (Northern Ireland) Act became law. The Act provided for the establishment of a central authority for public sector housing in Northern Ireland, and to also oversee the provision of grants for improvement to the private sector.
There had also been a meeting held between James Chichester-Clark, then Northern Ireland Prime Minister and William Conway, then Catholic Cardinal of Ireland on the 25th of February. This was the first such meeting between men holding these offices since 1921.
Tragically, February finished with a further 3 deaths in Northern Ireland; 1 British Soldier and 2 Royal Ulster Constabulary Officers.
On Friday the 26th of February, RUC officers, Cecil Patterson (45) and Robert Buckley (30) were shot and killed by the IRA while on a mobile patrol in the Ardoyne area of Belfast. Detective Inspector Patterson was originally from Cavan (4 members of the Gardai attended the funeral). He joined the RUC in 1949 and had 7 commendations for good police work. Robert Buckley left behind daughters aged 1 and 3. He was remembered in a service in 2000 held in Mountpottinger police station for officers murdered as a result of terrorist activity.
On Sunday the 28th of February, British soldier, Lance Corporal William Jolliffe, died in Derry as a result of inhaling chemicals from fire extinguishers that were used to put out a fire inside the vehicle he was travelling in. The vehicle had been attacked with petrol bombs and crashed into a wall at the junction of Cable Street and Westland Street in the Bogside. It’s had been reported that 10 petrol bombs were thrown, of which, four hit the vehicle. It had been reported in the Derry Journal that the driver managed to get out, but the other two occupants were trapped in the vehicle. Local residents helped to get them out and they were cared for in a house until an ambulance arrived. The badly injured L/Cpl. Jolliffe was taken to the hospital but died soon after admission.
Some recommended reading based on the research for this instalment.
UVF: The Endgame by Jim Cusack and Henry McDonald.
Ireland: The Key to the British Revolution by David Reed.
Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children Who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles by David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney and Chris Thornton.
Provisional Irish Republicans: An Oral and Interpretive History by Robert William White.