User:Domer48/Carol Ann Kelly Sandbox

Carol Ann Kelly (8 May 1969 – 22 May 1981) was 12 years of age and lived in the Twinbrook, on the outskirts of Belfast, Northern Ireland. On 19 May 1981, while playing outside her home, she was asked by a neighbour to go to the shop for a pint of milk. As she returned, a number of British Army Land Rovers drove by. Two plastic bullets were fired, one hitting Kelly on the head. She collapsed instantly, still holding the carton of milk. Taken to the Royal Victoria Hosptial, she died two days later 22 May as a result of extensive head injuries. In May 1981, 16,656 plastic bullets were fired, causing three deaths, with 15 people seriously injured since the Easter of that year.

The Twinbrook estate had seen the funeral of Bobby Sands MP, just ten days before Kelly was shot. Sands died in prison while on a hunger strike, initiated in protest after the removal of Special Category Status, which had been granted to all prisoners convicted of Troubles-related offences.

Carol Ann was one of seven people killed by British soldiers using plastic bullets during an upsurge of violence that took place between April and August 1981. By August 1981, ten people had been killed. According to Liz Curtis, many suffered horrific injuries, included brain damage and blindness in one or both eyes.

Personal background
Kelly was one in a family of eleven children. She attended St Luke's Primary School and St Colm's Secondary School, which were both close to her home. She was a member of the choirs at both schools. Her mother described her daughter as "a very outgoing child, not cheeky, but friendly, and not a fighter. She liked pop music and her favourites being Abba and Kate Bush".

Shooting
On 19 May 1981, Kelly was playing outside her family home, when a neighbour called and asked her to run to a nearby store for some milk. While returning with the carton of milk, the 12-year-old was shot in the head by a soldier, firing from the back of a Land Rover. Witnesses stated that there had been no rioting in the area at the time of the shooting. Kelly died three days later, on 22 May 1981. The Army claimed that they had responded to a group of missile-throwing youths, though it was not alleged according to Anthony Jennings, that Kelly was involved in any rioting.

Witnesses stated that there was no rioting in the area at the time Kelly was shot. They said that the soldiers were 'very agitated' when they drove their Land Rovers through the area. Five soldiers had been killed in south Armagh by the Provisional Irish Republican Army and it was claimed that they were shouting that 'We'll get your for our five mates today' at the residents.

In a statement issued on the 21 May by both Fathers Denis Faul and Raymond Murray condemning the aggressive use of plastic bullets by the Royal Ulster Constabulary describing their use as "an attempt to terrorise local people and prevent them from exercising their political right to peaceful picket". Responding to this criticism, RUC Chief Constable, Jack Hermon, in a reference which according to Rolston, appeared to cast doubt on the innocence of victims such as Kelly, said, "Let parents exercise their responsibility over their children ... in order to avoid a repetition of the tragedies which have already occurred."

Inquest
On 7 May 1982, the inquest into the death of Kelly was opened. This was the day before what would have been her 13th birthday. The coroner, James Elliott, refused the request from the family solicitor to adjourn the proceedings for the appointment of a jury.

The version of events presented by the Army was that they had been guarding St Luke's school and had come under attack from rioters and requested reinforcements. Two Land Rovers responded, and they came under attack. They said that two plastic bullets had been fired, the second striking Kelly. Rolston says that there were a number of discrepancies in this version of events, such as the claim that Kelly had been shot in the vicinity of the school, which was however a quarter of a mile from where she fell outside her home and the insistence of locals who said that there was no rioting in the area that evening.

The coroner described Kelly as an innocent victim, who was simply coming back from a shop with a carton of milk. The inquest found that two plastic bullets had been fired from the Land Rover. No soldiers were charged in the death of Carol Ann Kelly.

Aftermath
The death of Carol Ann Kelly was addressed during a United States congressional hearing by Brenda Downes, the widow of 22-year-old John Downes, who was killed by a plastic bullet on 12 August 1984. Mrs Downes noted the deaths of both Kelly and Julie Livingstone, who was 14 years old when she died. Livingstone had been killed by soldiers in the same manner, just six days before Kelly. Downes stated during the hearing that, "They were children. They offered no threat to anyone, but their lives were cut tragically short by a plastic bullet."