On the morning of Monday 9 August 1971, the security forces launched Operation Demetrius, the main focus of which was to arrest and intern suspected members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).

[9] This claim was strongly denied by the families of those killed in the shootings, including in interviews conducted during the documentary film The Ballymurphy Precedent.

The Stormont first minister Arlene Foster of the Democratic Unionist Party deferred a bid for extra funding for inquests into historic killings in Northern Ireland,[33] a decision condemned by the human rights group Amnesty International.

[34] Foster confirmed she had used her influence in the devolved power-sharing executive to hold back finance for a backlog of inquests connected to the conflict.

[33] The High Court said her decision to refuse to put a funding paper on the Executive basis was "unlawful and procedurally flawed".

[38] The killings are the subject of the August 2018 documentary The Ballymurphy Precedent, directed by Callum Macrae and made in association with Channel 4.