In the 1970s , the battalion first deployed to Northern Ireland in Operation Banner . The battalion was involved in the Ballymurphy Massacre in August 1971 , when 11 Catholic civilians were shot dead and many wounded over a two-day period . In January 1972 , both the press and some in the Army accused the battalion of brutality against protesters outside Magilligan internment camp . A week later , on 30 January 1972 , the battalion carried out the Bloody Sunday killings , when they opened fire on unarmed protesters in Derry , leaving 14 Catholic civilians dead and 13 wounded ; the greatest killing of British subjects by government forces in one incident since the Irish War of Independence . The second official inquiry of the killings found 1st Para 's actions " unjustified and unjustifiable " . To date , none of the members of 1 Para have been prosecuted . The battalion was involved in another controversial shooting incident on 7 September 1972 , when soldiers shot dead two Protestant civilians and wounded others in the Shankill area of Belfast . A unit of the Army 's Ulster Defence Regiment ( UDR ) refused to carry out duties until the battalion was withdrawn from the Shankill
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday (1972)
1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment