THE BALLYMURPHY PRECEDENT in cinemas
The Ballymurphy Precedent directed by Callum Macrae in cinemas 31 August 2018 following the RTS award winning student documentary The Ballymurphy Massacre by Sean Reynolds, Kyle Gibbon and Jonny Lewis from 2012
All the way back in 2012 when I was a film student at Newport Documentary film School, I worked alongside Kyle Gibbon and Sean Reynolds on a documentary on the untold story of the Ballymurphy Massacre. The film went on to win a Royal Television Society Award winning film, as well as having a number of other awards and festival screenings.
Between the 9th and 11th of August 1971 eleven people were killed by the British Army’s Parachute regiment. All eleven were unarmed civilians. One of the dead was a parish priest another was a mother of eight. The Royal Military Police were assigned as sole investigators. Not one member of the British army was held to account. It is believed that had justice been administered and those held to account charged, the events of Bloody Sunday in Derry would not have happened.. These events have remained hidden from public knowledge and focus for over 40 years, until now!
“In 2016, Sir Declan Morgan, the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, recommended an inquest into the killings as one of a series of “legacy inquests” covering 56 cases related to the Troubles
However these inquests were delayed as funding was not approved by the Northern Ireland Executive, as the former Stormont first minister Arlene Foster of the DUP, deferred a bid for extra funding for inquests into historic killings in Northern Ireland, a decision condemned by the human rights group Amnesty International. Foster confirmed she had used her influence in the devolved power-sharing executive to hold back finance for a backlog of inquests connected to the conflict. The High Court said “her decision to refuse to put a funding paper on the Executive basis was unlawful and procedurally flawed.” In January 2018 the coroners office announced that the inquest is due to begin in September 2018.”
Now, filmmaker Callum Macrae has managed to get support from Channel 4 and others, to really do the story justice in his new film The Ballymurphy Precedent and help bring the story to a wider audience. Find out more about his film here
On Twitter, Callum was kind enough to acknowledge the contribution Sean, Kyle and myself made with our original documentary back in 2012.
The BALLYMURPHY PRECEDENT will be in cinemas on August 31. Director Callum Macrae will be in conversation with Jon Snow (Channel 4 News). Thursday 30 August 6.15pm. Watch the trailer below
Please watch our original 2012 RTS award winning student film The BALLYMURPHY MASSACRE below
Find out more about our 2012 Ballymurphy Massacre film here