HET Review Summary Report into the death of William Francis ...

Circumstances of the death of William Francis McGreanery
This part of the report explains the circumstances of the death of
William Francis McGreanery, who was shot by a member of the 1 st
Battalion Grenadier Guards at the junction of Eastway, Lonemoor Road
and Westland Street, Derry, during the early hours of Wednesday,
September 15, 1971.
Mr McGreanery was aged 41 years at the time of his death and was born
on August 15, 1930. He was employed as an assistant in a sports store. He
was a Catholic and was a single man with no dependants. He was of good
character with no known associations to any paramilitary or criminal
group.
Background
By 1971, the ‘Troubles’ had been running for three years. The security
situation was bleak, indeed nearly a hundred people had died during the
early part of 1971, and all the indications were that the situation was only
going to get worse. The British army had been deployed on the streets
since August, 1969; originally welcomed by nationalists, that honeymoon
period had long passed and they were regarded by a substantial section
of the nationalist community as an instrument of oppression. In their
turn, young soldiers from other parts of the United Kingdom viewed tours
of duty in Northern Ireland with trepidation. Between February and
August of 1971, fourteen soldiers had been killed on the streets of the
Province. They regarded the nationalist communities as the danger areas
from which threats to their safety were most likely to emerge.
The political scenario offered no hope of resolution, with entrenched
hard-line positions on both sides. At the time of Mr McGreanery’s death,
there was considerable debate about ‘No Go Areas’, locations where
communities had erected barricades and physically prevented access to
the army or RUC, enforced by armed paramilitaries who controlled the
movement of people within them. Such areas included the Creggan and the
Bogside in the City of Derry.
These areas were a visible symbol of success to those who espoused a
republican agenda, and an embarrassing provocation to those opposed.
They presented a challenge to the authority of the State; in calmer
times, efforts to remove them may have been conducted by negotiation
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