July 9

  • 1921 The IRA ambushed an RIC/USC patrol in Raglan Street, West Belfast, killing one RIC officer. During a cycle of sectarian violence over the following 24 hours, some 22 lives were lost, including thirteen Catholic civilians and six Protestant civilians.
  • 1669 Oliver Plunkett appointed archbishop of Armagh.
  • 1917 The battleship HMS Vanguard, anchored in Scapa Flow, sank after a series of internal magazine explosions. Of the 845 men on board only two survived.
  • 1916 Sir Edward Heath, British Conservative prime minister (1970–4) whose government imposed direct rule on Northern Ireland in March 1972, born.
  • 1797 Edmund Burke, philosopher and politician, died.
  • 1972 Gun battles raged throughout West Belfast following the breakdown of an IRA ceasefire. Five people were shot dead by the Parachute Regiment in the Springhill area, including a thirteen-year-old girl and a Catholic priest.