Disturbances in Belfast - November 21st to 24th- 1921
On the morning of the 21st, three Protestant workmen – William Hanna (40); Robert Graham (50) and Henry Stirling (25) – were shot receiving fatal wounds on their way to work. (McDermott says that Hanna was shot by loyalist but that Graham was shot by the IRA. He comments “The Belfast IRA was being dragged into a sectarian conflict.”) In the late afternoon, a Catholic barman – James Hagan - was shot in the head and later in the evening, a Protestant – Andrew James Stewart (22) was shot as he returned from work.
In what the Belfast Telegraph labeled Belfast’s ‘Big Day of Terror’, at least ten people were killed and over 50 injured on the 22nd. (McDermott says that 10 Catholics and 4 Protestants were killed but Parkinson’s naming of the casualties would seem to suggest 6 Catholics killed and 7 Protestants.) A Protestant, Andrew Patton (32) died from injuries sustained during disturbances. Two Protestant clerks – William McMordie(22) and JP Keating (28) – were killed at lunchtime when shipyard workers came under fire. (McDermott says that the fire came from a loyalist sniper.) Neil McConvey (or Convery), his wife Kathleen and a lodger, Minnie Kelly, were killed when a stray police bullet burst the gas pipe in their Thompson St home and they succumbed to the gas fumes. Also, Patrick Malone was shot dead in his Beerbridge Rd. spirit grocer shop. Another spirit grocer, Patrick Connolly, was shot in his Duncairn Gardens shop and died the following day. Bertie (Hubert) Phillips (25) was shot dead by an IRA sniper in Molyneaux St. A Catholic, Patrick John McNally was shot dead in Stanhope St. by uniformed men. Around six o’clock a bomb is thrown at a tram in the Corporation St area carrying people returning from work. Three men are killed – William Cairnduff (40); James Rodgers and Robert Nesbitt (17) – and there are several injured. (McDermott quotes Hassan as saying that the tram contained ‘pogromists’ but he points out that the Belfast Telegraph was equally biased by claiming that Catholics from the small, isolated and vastly outnumbered Short Strand area attacked loyalists first “apparently with the sole object of creating a riot”.)
On the 23rd, four people received fatal wounds from snipers: Patrick Brunton (38); Ellen Bell (70); Michael Spallen (27) and Margaret Jane Miller (48). (All Catholics according to McDermott.) There was looting and gunfire in various parts of the city including Royal Av. A bomb was thrown at a group of Protestants who had burnt down the gate lodge of St Matthew’s Church killing one and injuring 45 others.
On the 24th, the funeral of Andrew Patton was attacked. A spirit grocer, John Kelly, and his son Eugene were killed in their Ohio St shop by a sole gunman. Thomas Thompson, a member of the Orange Order, who went to Mr Kelly’s assistance was also fatally wounded. A tram, bound for the Shankill, is bombed on Royal Av. resulting in four deaths and nearly 30 injured. The four people killed are: Richard Graham (42); Jeremiah Fleming (54); Robert Johnston (41) and Thomas Rodgers (66). McDermott gives an account of an IRA man (Sean Montgomery) who was involved in this bombing.