August 16 1974
A 15-year-old boy last night told how his chum was murdered in a cold-blooded ambush in Belfast’s North Queen Street.
Earlier, there was anger in the district over allegations that the shots which killed 13-year-old Joseph McGuinness were fired from Spamount Street, which is occupied mainly by Catholics. Joseph, a Catholic, died in the Royal Victoria Hospital at 1.30am yesterday after being shot in the chest at about 10pm on Wednesday.
After the shooting, the RUC said: “It would appear that four shots had been fired from Spamount Street towards Upper Meadow Street.” Following investigations yesterday, however, they corrected the statement issued to the press.
The police are now convinced that the fatal shots were fired from the Protestant Duncairn Gardens-North Queen Street junction. Initially, the police said that Joseph had been shot near his home in Upper Meadow Street. But local people pointed out that for this to have happened, bullets fired from Spamount Street would have had to travel around two corners.
Early yesterday, police and troops found four spent cartridge cases at the Duncairn Gardens-North Queen Street junction and they also examined a grocery shop which was struck by some of the bullets.
Detectives investigating the case want the driver of a car seen in the area at the time of the shooting, or anyone else who can give them information, to contact them.
A boy who was with Joseph when he was shot said they were on their way with two other boys to a chip shop in York Street.
“We walked down Spamount Street and when we got to the church at the corner of North Queen Street, a crowd of Protestants started shouting at us from the corner of North Queen Street and Brougham Street.
“We went over to a patch of waste ground at the corner of Upper Meadow Street. Then Joe ran through an entry into Hillman Street and I ran through after him. I shouted to him not to go out on to North Queen Street, but he just ran on.
“He went out into North Queen Street facing the crowd at Brougham Street. They were shouting ‘fenian b*****d” at him and he shouted at them to come up and fight.
“Then the shooting started and I saw Joe hitting the ground. I couldn’t do anything because they were still shooting.”
