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John Copeland Murdered by the British Army, October 1971

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John Copeland Murdered by the British Army, October 1971 John Copeland Murdered by the British army, October 1971 Report compiled for the Copeland family by Relatives For Justice The untold stories of Relatives, Victims and Survivors John Copeland Rep DEC 2018.indd 1 2/4/19 7:34 PM John Copeland Murdered by the British army, October 1971 Introduction 20-year-old Gunner Robert Curtis, shot dead in the conflict. He was the first British soldier to die on duty John Copeland was shot and fatally in Ireland since 1921. injured by British soldiers not far In all, 180 people died in the year, 94 of them civilians. from his home in Ladbrook Drive The British forces dead comprised 44 British soldiers, in Ardoyne, north Belfast, on the 11 RUC officers and 5 Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) evening of the 28th October 1971. men. Twenty-three republicans and three loyalists He died two days later. In the year were killed during the year. Of the total number of John died 20 people were killed deaths, republican organisations were responsible for in Ardoyne and the surrounding 107, the British army for 45, loyalists for 22 and the RUC area, 7 civilians, 7 British soldiers, 4 Royal Ulster for one death. Constabulary (RUC) officers and 2 Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers. That same year eleven civilians Purpose of RFJ Family Reports were killed in Ballymurphy, west Belfast, by the British Army’s Parachute Regiment between the 9th This report has been compiled by Relatives For and 11th of August and the Ulster Volunteer Force Justice (RFJ) on behalf of the Copeland family as a full (UVF) planted a no warning bomb on the doorstep account of available information on what happened of the family-run McGurk’s Bar in north Belfast on the to their husband and father. It provides a narrative 4th December, killing 15 Catholic civilians. for the family and an analysis of the wider context in The nationalist population’s civil disobedience which this killing occurred. It highlights outstanding campaign intensified throughout the course of questions that require answers, ultimately from the 1971, particularly in response to draconian security British state. The report challenges the self-serving measures, while unionism was in crisis with the and partial “official” British narrative of their troops resignation of James Chichester-Clark as Prime acting as neutral peace-keepers between opposing Minister. The new unionist Prime Minister in the communities. north of Ireland, Brian Faulkner, the third in just over In the absence of a legally-compliant investigation a year, introduced internment on the 9th August or examination of the evidence, this publication 1971. Emblematic of the unionist approach to the addresses official lies and propaganda by giving crisis was Faulkner’s announcement on 25th May, expression to the Copeland family’s sentiments and two and a half months before internment, that: views concerning what happened to their loved one. “any soldier seeing any person with a weapon or RFJ seeks to provide a voice for families and their loved seeing any person acting suspiciously may fire either ones in their continuing pursuit of truth, accountability to warn or may fire with effect, depending on the and justice. circumstances and without waiting for orders from The report is also about remembering John . anyone”1. This was giving soldiers carte blanche to Copeland’s life and the impact of his death shoot-to-kill. Meanwhile, Loyalist vigilante groups emerged on Family background a large scale and many of them came together to John ‘Johnny’ Copeland was born on 7th September form the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). The year 1949 and had three brothers (Eddie, Jimmy and, 1971 also saw the first member of the British army, Paddy) and five sisters (Kathleen, Evelyn, Ellen, Mary and Winnie). Johnny was the youngest of the nine 1 Thomas Hennessy, A History of Northern Ireland, Gill & siblings. MacMillan, 1997, p. 192. 2 RELATIVES FOR JUSTICE | JOHN COPELAND - MURDERED BY THE BRITISH ARMY, OCTOBER 1971 John Copeland Rep DEC 2018.indd 2 2/4/19 7:34 PM Holy Cross Boys primary school and then St Gabriel’s secondary school. When he left school, Johnny first became an upholsterer, worked for a time as a bus conductor and later went on to become a male nurse. Johnny was a keen boxer and fought for the Holy Family boxing club, Newington, Belfast. He was also a member of a weightlifting club in Butler Street, Ardoyne and played football for St Gabriel’s school. Outside of his sporting activities Johnny had an interest in Irish dancing and he met his future wife Carol at an Irish dancing class in the Marrowbone, a neighbouring area adjacent to Ardoyne. Both Carol and Johnny went to live in England when they were training to be nurses. They returned home and were married in Holy Cross chapel in August 1968. After they were married they lived for a short period of time with Johnny’s mother in Strathroy Park. Johnny and Carol had two Johnny and Carol children: Linda was born in 1969 and their son, Eddie, in 1970. They first moved into a house in Kerrera Street, Ardoyne and then in June 1971 moved into what would be their family home in Ladbrook Drive, Ardoyne. The Historical Enquiries Team (HET) review into the murder of John Copeland Like most families bereaved by British state forces, the Copeland family knew little about the state’s reaction concerning Johnny’s killing. However, it didn’t take long to realise that one thing was evident: the person responsible wasn’t going to be held to account. There was an investigation - of sorts - and an inquest, but no-one ever let the family know what Carol and Johnny in the grounds of Holy Cross chapel on evidence and information had been gathered. It their wedding day was then PSNI Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, who in 2005 decided to instigate a review of all deaths that Johnny was 23 years old at the time he was killed. occurred during the conflict. He set up the Historical He lived with his wife, Carol, and their two young Enquiries Team (HET) to carry out this task and it children, Eddie and Linda, at Ladbrook Drive, began a review of the case file into Johnny’s killing Ardoyne, Belfast. His parents Edward and Susan (née in 2011. This was the first time the family had been Moane) were both originally from the Short Strand, approached by any official investigators and Johnny’s close to the city centre. They moved to Ardoyne at wife, Carol, and his son, Eddie, engaged with the HET an early age and brought up their family in Strathroy with the support of RFJ. Park. The HET was abolished in 2015 without the HET Johnny’s nickname was ‘Snout’ because, as his wife Review Summary Report (RSR) into John Copeland’s Carol puts it: ‘he had a big nose’. He was educated at death being completed, though it emerged that RELATIVES FOR JUSTICE | JOHN COPELAND - MURDERED BY THE BRITISH ARMY, OCTOBER 1971 3 John Copeland Rep DEC 2018.indd 3 2/4/19 7:34 PM a draft report had been worked up. (An RSR was hostile and repressive force whose presence was intended to provide families with the outcome of overwhelmingly opposed by the people of Ardoyne. the HET’s review of all available material in the police Resistance to their presence took many forms from file relating to the original investigation, including routine protests against patrols, to riots and the any further investigative steps undertaken by the actions of the IRA. Just immediately before Johnny HET.) RFJ requested a copy of the draft HET RSR into was shot, 22-year-old Michael McLarnon, another Johnny’s killing from the PSNI’s Legacy Investigation Ardoyne resident, had been shot by a British soldier Branch (LIB) in the summer of 2015 and, finally, in Etna Drive; there is little doubt it was the same received a copy on the 21st June 2017. patrol that killed Johnny. Michael McLarnon died The HET RSR failed to explain sufficiently why later that night. there was not a proper investigation into Johnny’s The attitude of the soldiers in the Green Howards death by the RUC. While it may have revealed more regiment during their tour of 1972 can be seen from information regarding the circumstances that led the account of Brendan Clarke in ‘Ardoyne: The Untold to Johnny’s killing, the report did not address all the Truth’. 2 Soldiers entered the back yard of Brendan’s questions that the Copeland family consider still house, also in Etna Drive, barged into the house and demand answers. Moreover, the RSR underlined the took it over, imprisoning the family in a downstairs family’s contention that the RUC failed to carry out a room. Some of the soldiers went upstairs and fired proper investigation into his death or to keep them through the window injuring a girl. They were updated. laughing and gave a lot of verbal abuse to Brendan and his family. They said they were: “out to kill IRA The British army in Ardoyne at the men tonight”. time of John Copeland’s murder This was the atmosphere in Ardoyne that evening: as soon as patrols appeared, protests were inevitable. Circumstances regarding the murder of John Copeland John Copeland was shot dead by a soldier of the Green Howards Regiment at the junction of Berwick Road and Estoril Park, Ardoyne, Belfast at approximately 9.11pm on Thursday 28th October 1971. He died from his injuries at the Mater Infirmorum Hospital on the Crumlin Road at 6.30pm two days later, on Saturday 30th October 1971.
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