Ballymurphy Inquest: Witness 'saw smoke coming from rifle'

Nine men and a woman were killed in Ballymurphy in August 1971

A witness has told the Ballymurphy Inquest how she heard shooting and saw a paratrooper immediately afterwards with smoke coming from the muzzle of his rifle.

Sheila McAlliskey was giving evidence into the death of John McKerr.

Mr McKerr was a 49-year-old joiner working for the local firm P&F McDonnell when he was shot on 11 August 1971.

He was not from the Ballymurphy area.

The Ballymurphy Inquest is examining 10 people's deaths in August 1971.

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Mr McKerr had been fixing defects in Corpus Christi Church on Westrock Drive which the firm had recently finished building.

This section of road has since been renamed Springhill Avenue.

Who were the victims?

• Father Hugh Mullan, 38, and Francis Quinn, 19, were shot in an area of open ground behind Springfield Park

• Daniel Teggart, 44, Joan Connolly, 44, Noel Phillips, 19, and Joseph Murphy, 41, were shot near the Henry Taggart Army base near Springfield Park

• John Laverty, 20, and Joseph Corr, 43, were shot at separate points at the top of Whiterock Road

• Edward Doherty, 31, was shot at the corner of Brittons Parade and Whiterock Road

• John McKerr, 49, was shot outside the old Corpus Christi Parish

The former British soldier had been wounded during World War Two and had lost a hand.

He used a prosthetic lower arm onto which he would attach his joinery tools.

It has been suggested that this device might have been mistaken for a gun when he was shot, and this was mentioned in court.

'Would anybody have believed me?'

Sheila McAlliskey said there had been a good deal of shooting in the area that day, but many local people had gone to Corpus Christi to attend the funeral of a local man.

At the time, she said, paratroopers had been firing rubber bullets through the front doors and windows of local houses.

She said that after the funeral she saw John McKerr standing near the church, and heard several shots whilst she and others were sheltering inside.

Later she became aware that he had fallen and that a priest was giving him the last rites.

A picture of John McKerr and his wife Maureen

Asked why she had not come forward with her statement to anyone in authority at the time, be it priest or policeman, she replied: "Would anybody have believed me then?"

Mr McKerr's daughter Anne Ferguson travelled from England to hear the first witnesses giving evidence about how her father died.

She said that hearing such evidence gets more difficult as the inquest progresses.

Mr McKerr's former employer, Fergal McDonnell, described him as, "a quiet man who always got on with his work".

He explained that Mr McKerr has been working inside the church and had telephoned the company office, asking for extra materials to be delivered.

Mr McDonnell explained that they later heard that Mr McKerr had been shot and had been shocked at the news.

"I found him to be a very diligent employee and very good at his job." he told the court.