These are busy days for the families of the 11 Ballymurphy Massacre victims, shot by soldiers of the Parachute Regiment between 9 – 11 August 1971, the first nights and days of internment. Here is the litany of those who died: mother of eight, Joan Connolly; father of twelve, Joseph Murphy; Catholic priest, Father Hugh Mullan; father of two-year-old Angela, Frank Quinn; father of thirteen, Danny Teggart; nineteen-year-old Noel Phillips; father of four, Eddie Doherty; father of seven, Joe Corr; twenty-year-old John Laverty; and father of eight, John McKerr. English youth worker, Paddy McCarthy, recently arrived to work in Ballymurphy, died of a heart attack shortly after being confronted and threatened by the Paras. Overall, fifty-seven children lost a parent in the massacre.

On 1 February an event was held at Belfast Met’s Springvale campus following a coroner’s appeal for any witnesses to the Ballymurphy killings who have not previously made statements to come forward.

Relatives of those killed in Ballymurphy, McGurk’s Bar, the Loughinisland atrocity and other incidents this week announced a Time for Truth march on 25 February “open to all families, irrespective of background, who lost loved ones or were injured in the conflict.”

And last week, several Ballymurphy family members flew to London for the Westminster Hall debate on “Fatalities in Northern Ireland involving British Military Personnel.” A Defence Committee report has recommended that the forthcoming consultation on mechanisms to deal with the legacy of the past should include the proposal for a statute of limitations covering all Troubles-related incidents prior to the signing of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. Following the advice of four experts in international law, Conservative MP Dr Julian Lewis, who introduced the debate, acknowledged that the statute should apply to both military and paramilitary personnel, and should be accompanied by a truth recovery mechanism to enable families to discover the facts.

Dr Lewis had spoken to three Sinn Féin MPs, who were not in favour of an amnesty for military, police and security forces; the DUP were not in favour of an amnesty for Republican paramilitaries. Dr Lewis appealed to all who were involved in one way or another in the tragedy of the Troubles of Northern Ireland to take the wider view.

He went on:  “From my conversations with people on either side of the argument, I sometimes get the impression that they are held captive by the response they feel they have to make to the people who elected them and brought them to this House.”

This week it was also revealed by the presiding coroner Mrs Justice Siobhan Keegan that a military intelligence database had been passed to the PSNI in 2007 at the end of the British army’s Operation Banner (the codename for their operations in Northern Ireland). It turns out that the PSNI Disclosure Unit was not aware of the database and therefore it had not been routinely searched to disclose intelligence material for inquests. It is possible, says John Teggart, son of Danny Teggart, that there is relevant information in that database – the names of soldiers, for example, or watchkeepers’ logs of incidents, including shootings.

Meanwhile, a Judicial Review began last week into whether DUP leader Arlene Foster, as First Minister, the Secretary of State and the Executive had in 2016 blocked the release of funding for 57 outstanding inquests – including Ballymurphy and Kingsmill Massacres. The case was brought by the widow of a civilian caught up in the SAS ambush of an IRA unit in Loughgall in May 1987 and will continue into next week. The judge, Sir Paul Girvan, has already opined that there was an obligation to carry out inquests without delay, following the Lord Chief Justice Declan Morgan’s 2015 judgement. He added that “politicians can’t hide behind institutions,” that “the government was dysfunctional” and he asked whether Arlene Foster blocked the funding for political reasons (@RelsForJustice).

In fact, the Ballymurphy families now have their inquest assigned for 11 September 2018, forty-seven years after the Massacre took place and twenty years after the campaign to clear their loved ones’ names began. However, if funding for legacy inquests were released, it might mean there would be more resources for a thorough investigation. The Ballymurphy families differ on whether they want prosecution of the soldiers involved, but they do agree that there should be no amnesty for the soldiers. The families’ main objective is to have their loved ones’ names cleared. At the time of the original cursory inquests, soldiers stated that they were returning fire from gunmen and open verdicts were recorded. “Our position is that the victims were actually heroes”, says John Teggart, “they were people that went out to help their neighbours, that were looking out for our own family and community members”.

The campaign began after the 1998 Relatives for Justice “Forgotten Victims” Conference, held at St Mary’s College on the Falls Road. For the twenty seven years until then, incredibly, the families had no contact with one another, for a number of reasons.

First, at the time the deaths were just further statistics in the conflict that was raging in West Belfast. Ballymurphy was a war zone, subject to intense army observation, raids, patrols and house searching, aggression and violence. The conflict claimed dozens of lives in this area of just 1,100 homes. In Ballymurphy and the Irish War, author Ciarán de Baróid lists 27 Republican volunteers, 27 military and RUC personnel, and 66 civilians who died between 1969 and the book’s publication in 1989.

Second, consumed with shock and grief, the families suppressed conversation about their loss – beyond or even with their families. They knew very little about what had actually happened during those dreadful days. Indeed, there were four 14-year-old schoolgirls in the same class who had lost an immediate relative — Rita Laverty, Isobel Teggart, Briege Connolly and Rose Murphy – who did not know of their shared story.

Now, there is a campaign meeting every Monday night, attended by a core group and other family members who come and go. Updates are given on the continually shifting and dizzyingly complex issues faced by the families as they approach the inquest. Briege Voyle, daughter of Joan Connolly, is the chair; John Teggart manages all the communications and social media. Although most massacre families no longer live in Ballymurphy, they all support the campaign and are kept regularly updated. The campaign is also assisted by Ciarán Cahill, the coordinator of the Springhill Community House, which was founded in 1971 by Fr Des Wilson.

The Ballymurphy Massacre inquest is one of few taking place funded by the coroner’s normal budget. It is, says John Teggart, due to the “determination of the families” that they managed to get a date assigned.  The relatives at a certain point decided to run their own campaign, and have been relentless and strategic in their pursuit of justice. Following the Forgotten Victims conference, they knocked on doors and amassed new witness statements and evidence, which laid dormant until the appointment of an Attorney General in 2010 made a legal application for a new inquest possible.

On Sunday 4 February, the annual march to commemorate Bloody Sunday, which took place on 30 January 1972, will take place in Derry. It was the same regiment responsible for the deaths in Ballymurphy that was on duty in Derry six months later and responsible for the shootings of 28 unarmed protesters – of whom 14 died – during the anti-internment march. Former Prime Minister David Cameron apologised in Parliament in June 2010 for the “unequivocal… unjustifiable and unjustified behaviour” of the Paras on Bloody Sunday, and in December 2012 for the “shocking levels of collusion” in the 1989 killing of solicitor Pat Finucane.

As long as there are delays in implementing the legacy mechanisms and a vacuum in political leadership, inquests will be the only recourse to justice available to families. They are not going to give up or disappear, and indeed it appears that there is a snowballing of processes and events to keep up the pressure on the new Secretary of State, Karen Bradley, and the British government. In the immediate future, all eyes will be on the outcome of the Judicial Review.