Introduction
July 9, 1972: British soldiers from 1st Battalion Kings Regiment killed three teenagers including a young girl, a family man, and a local priest in the Springhill-Westrock Massacre - all Irish Catholics, all unarmed. July 10, 1972: 1 Kings released a 17-year-old Loyalist gunman to UDA paramilitary leader, Andy Tyrie, even though they had caught this teenager in the middle of a gun battle and threatening to murder Irish Catholics with an illegal weapon. Two days, one British Army regiment, two estates on either side of one road; two completely different standards of justice.
The secret British Army files that Paper Trail discovered casts a cold light on this casual collusion between the British Army and Loyalist paramilitaries. They also reveal the shocking extent of this double standard. While Irish families buried their dead, Loyalist paramilitaries walked free with British Army approval.
The Springhill-Westrock Massacre
The secret British military logs from July 9, 1972, show that 1 Kings killed the 3 unarmed teenagers, a family man and the local parish priest during the Springhill-Westrock Massacre. Another 2 unarmed locals were shot and injured. The British Ministry of Defence had tried to bury which regiment was guilty of the murders for decades.
All of the victims were Irish Catholics.
One of the murdered teenagers was 13-year-old girl called Margaret Gargan. Also killed were: John David McCafferty (15), Dougal (16), Patrick Butler (39) and Father Noel Fitzpatrick (40).
The killings began with a British Army attack on two vehicles that had stopped on the street. Local witnesses testify that John Dougal tried to go to the aid of the injured of one of these vehicles when he was shot.
John was my grandmother’s nephew.
Father Fitzpatrick and Patrick Butler were alleged to have been felled by the same bullet as they prepared to go to the aid of the injured. Father Fitzpatrick had just run from the church in his priestly garb and was waving a white handkerchief as a sign that he was coming out and he was no threat to the British Army.
David McCafferty was killed when he tried to drag Father Fitzpatrick's body to safety.
Margaret Gargan was killed by a British Army sniper when she was talking with her friends a couple of hundred yards away.
John Dougal and David McCafferty were later claimed as Fianna - Republican youth members of the Provisional and Official Irish Republican Army respectively.
Civilian witnesses testify that none of the victims were armed and later police tests found no trace of lead residue on their bodies.
The British Army alleged they were under attack and returned fire. They then alleged the victims were caught in crossfire during an intense gun battle with the IRA (again disputed by the civilian witnesses). The British Army then alleged Loyalists may have shot the victims before admitting at the original inquest that their soldiers injured and killed the victims. This inquest was a whitewash.
The families fought with great dignity for truth and justice over the last two generations before securing a new inquest.
Double Standards of Justice
The night after the massacre on 10th July 1972, across the road and a few hundred metres away in Springmartin, 1 Kings arrested a Loyalist gunman during an interfactional shooting battle.
His name and address in redacted but we can see that 1 Kings reported that they arrested him carrying an unlicensed 9mm pistol and he had 11 rounds in a holster.
A few hours later, the Commanding Officer of 1 Kings reported to his 39 Brigade Headquarters:
"Picked up boy (17) with a weapon. UDA [Ulster Defence Association] Commander is taking boy away, saying they [UDA] will sort him out. Security Forces have the weapon. RUC and Company Commander [1 Kings] agree best [course of] action is to let boy go. If detained by Security Forces, there will be a major incident, and may foul up relations for 12 July."
The 12th July, of course, was the 12th July Orange parades.
0222 hours (2:22 am), 11th July 1972
The Commanding Officer insisted:
“that the boy is fully photographed and documented, and fully questioned then handed over to RUC. Boy very frightened. [NAME REDACTED] being told that this is the last chance..."
The redacted name there, I believe, was the name of UDA leader Andy Tyrie who then gave assurance to the CO of 1 Kings. The CO in turn said he would phone HQ the following morning regarding these assurances.
Secret British military intelligence documents from May 1972 record that the Company Commander of A Company Highfield/Springmartin was Andy Tyrie who would subsequently become nominal leader of the UDA from 1973 to 1988. Despite murdering hundreds of civilians, the British state did not proscribe the UDA until August 1992. Tyrie is also mentioned elsewhere in Julys logs.
39 Brigade reported then to Headquarters Northern Ireland:
"Ref [Reference] Protestant Gunman. 17 year old boy Stupid Boy - UDA Company Commander request[ed] to deal with it - Did not have firearms certificate. Being released to the UDA on the advice of the RUC."
A few minutes later, he then reported:
"Documentation and photos done. Boy will now be released by British Military on [the] advice of RUC."
Andy Tyrie UDA
The British State possessed detailed knowledge of Tyrie's position and influence within Loyalist paramilitarism months before the events of July 1972. The intelligence files from then confirm that British forces maintained comprehensive surveillance of UDA command structures while simultaneously facilitating their operations through direct collaboration.
On July 10, 1972, the 1st Battalion Kings Regiment arrested a 17-year-old Loyalist gunman in the Springmartin Road area of West Belfast. The teenager carried a 9mm pistol and eleven rounds of ammunition when British Army patrols apprehended him during intense interfactional fighting. Unlike the unarmed 13 year old Catholic girl 1 Kings murdered twenty-four hours earlier, this armed 17 year old Protestant posed a genuine threat to everyone including the British armed forces through possession of illegal weapons and ammunition.
The Commanding Officer of 1 Kings made the shocking decision to bypass standard arrest procedures and engage in contact with the UDA directly. Instead of processing the gunman through normal military and police channels, the officer reported to 39 Brigade Headquarters that the UDA commander was taking the boy away, stating that they would "sort him out." This represents direct collaboration between British forces and paramilitary organizations operating in Protestant areas.
When it handed the loyalist gunman over, The British State effectively outsourced law enforcement to a known paramilitary leader, demonstrating the casual nature of collusion between British armed forces and Loyalist armed organizations. The British authorities in these files recognized UDA command structures while simultaneously enabling their continued operations through official cooperation.
39 Brigade reported to British Army Headquarters Northern Ireland about the incident, referring to the gunman as a "Protestant Gunman" and noting that the UDA Company Commander requested to deal with the situation. The report stated that the boy was being released to the UDA on RUC advice, highlighting collaborative decision-making processes that prioritized Loyalist paramilitary interests over law enforcement. These communications document systematic preferential treatment afforded to armed Protestant organizations – in the UDA’s case, one that remained legal until 1992.
Tyrie's subsequent rise to become nominal leader of the UDA from 1973 to 1988 occurred despite British intelligence's documented knowledge of his paramilitary activities. The British State promoted a known paramilitary commander through deliberate inaction, allowing him to coordinate decades of civilian murders while maintaining official protection. This trajectory demonstrates how individual acts of collusion enabled long-term violence against the Catholic community.
This discrimination was systemic. In 1972 under British Armed Forces Arrest Policy, Protestants were specifically exempted from Interim Custody Orders – internment without trial. This discriminatory approach to arrests meant that the British State interned Irish Catholics alone. The policy revealed institutional bias that in effect protected Loyalist paramilitaries while subjecting the Irish community to detention without charge and violence.
This single incident on July 10 exemplifies the systematic protection afforded to Loyalist paramilitaries while Catholics faced immediate lethal force. The contrast between murdering unarmed Catholics and releasing an armed Protestant gunman reveals the British State's deliberate choice to enable Loyalist violence. These declassified documents prove that it was policy designed to maintain sectarian divisions while denying official responsibility for the consequences.
Paper Trail has also discovered further examples of collusion between the British military, RUC and Loyalists in these files directly referencing Tyrie’s A Company UDA and a number of unsolved murders.
In one British military intelligence report, a loyalist leader – name redacted – openly discussed a number of murders of Irish Catholics.
The British intelligence officer reported that:
“The UDA, and in particular in this area A and B Coys, seem to have been temporarily appeased by the positive approach adopted by the Security Forces… However one or two incidents underline their increasing preparedness to use weapons to kill Catholics.”
The report named a number of victims whose names I will not record here and goes on to say that the named Loyalist paramilitary leader:
“…made no secret of the fact that his Company had been responsible.”
In one terrible murder, one of the perpetrators was himself shot and dropped a gun at the scene.
The intelligence summary recorded:
“His second in command NAMED owned the car which was used; The NAMED Paramilitary leader asked for .45 revolver back which had been lost during the incident, and a member of A Company NAME and ADDRESS provided. The Named Victim was going to be detained for interrogation but that something had gone wrong and shots were exchanged.”
I have gone back to the National Archives in London to find out definitively whether it was Tyrie now he is deceased. But here we have it in black and white this named Loyalist leader discussed murders with British military, told them who was involved and asked for the gun back.
As stark and as open an admission that I have ever read in secret files.
Paper Trail has researched this particular murder for a number of years and found archival information proving that the British Army and the RUC knew who committed this murder within hours anyway and had connected the injured perpetrator in hospital to the murder.
In fact, the RUC had discovered .45 bullets on this person whilst he was in hospital but did not arrest him for the murder. He was never prosecuted for any paramilitary activity. When he was brought before the courts during the Loyalist supergrass trials in the early 80s, the RUC actually told the judge that the killer had not been involved in anything since 1972 and he got off scot-free. The RUC did not tell the judge that he had committed a murder in 1972.
Nobody was prosecuted for this murder and I do not know whether the murder gun was handed back to the UDA by the British armed forces just as others had been in other terrible incidents.
Paper Trail has provided all of this evidence to the family of the murdered victim and when I completed the report, I was informed that the killer is still alive.
Conclusion
The contrast between July 9 and July 10, 1972, reveals the British State's deliberate choice to protect Loyalist paramilitaries while waging war on the Catholic community. These declassified documents prove that collusion was not accidental but a systemic policy, designed to enable organized Loyalist violence while denying its existence.
Related
Read the archives in this article: Casual Collusion and a Tale of Two City Estates
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