Battle at Springmartin

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.