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Showing posts with label Bloody Sunday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bloody Sunday. Show all posts
Independent ✏ Thirteen marchers were shot dead in the Bogside on 30 January 1972 when the army opened fire on civil rights marchers.
Jonathan McCambridge
Lieutenant Colonel Derek Wilford died at the age of 90 in Belgium, having suffered from Parkinson’s disease, according to an obituary in The Times.

Bloody Sunday, on January 30 1972, was one of the darkest days in the history of the Northern Ireland Troubles.

Thirteen people were killed on the day and another man shot by paratroopers died four months later.

Many consider him the 14th victim of Bloody Sunday, but his death was formally attributed to an inoperable brain tumour.

Another 14 people were injured in the shootings.

In a statement, Tony Doherty, chairman of the Bloody Sunday Trust, whose father was killed on Bloody Sunday, said: “The passing of Derek Wilford, while felt by his family, will not be mourned by the families of the innocent men and boys whose lives were taken by armed British paratroopers on Bloody Sunday.

Colonel Wilford lived in a constant state of denial, never once accepting any measure of responsibility for his actions on that fateful day.

Continue reading @ The Independent.

‘Terrible legacy’ Left By Death Of Bloody Sunday Parachute Regiment Commander

David Burke ✒ Soldiers F and G used an armoured personnel carrier or ‘pig’ assigned to them, as a mobile torture chamber to electrocute people in Belfast in the weeks after Bloody Sunday.
Introduction.

The brutality displayed by David Cleary (Soldier F) and Ron Cook (Soldier G) of 1 Para on Bloody Sunday in Derry on 30 January 1972 was not an aberration. After murdering a string of unarmed civilians, they were taken to Fort George where they beat up a group of innocent prisoners including a priest. They then returned to Belfast. What is revealed here for the first time is how they used the armoured personnel carrier or ‘pig’ assigned to them as a mobile torture chamber to electrocute people in Belfast in the weeks after Bloody Sunday.
1. Murder

Cleary is alive and may yet face criminal charges for his actions on Bloody Sunday when he and Cook (who is dead) were conveyed in their ‘pig’ into the Bogside at speed. They leapt out of the vehicle and took up positions behind a low wall adjacent to a ramp on Kells Walk from where they shot Michael Kelly. Kelly was unarmed and standing at a nearby rubble barricade, a threat to no one.

Continue reading @ Village.

Bloody Sunday Murderers Operated A Mobile Torture Chamber

Matt Treacy ✒ This Sunday sees the 50th anniversary of the murders of 14 innocent civilians who were shot dead by soldiers of the British Parachute regiment during a civil rights march in Derry on January 30, 1972. Thirteen died that day, with one man, John Johnston dying later from injuries.

29-January-2022
The killings sparked a wave of outrage across the world and undoubtedly contributed to the escalation of the armed conflict which lasted until the IRA and loyalist ceasefires in the 1990s. There were protests against the killings, and indeed calling for the end to British rule in Ireland, in many cities across the world. The British embassy on Merrion Square Dublin was burned to the ground.

The trauma inflicted on the families of the dead, and on the wider Catholic community in Derry, was compounded by the official reaction. The British state inquiry under Lord Chief Justice Widgery was set in train quickly in an effort at damage limitation. However, its findings – based on the testimony of British personnel who were involved in the shooting – were widely rejected.

The sensitivity and centrality of what took place in Derry was such that it was not until 1998, when the IRA had definitively ended its armed campaign for a united Ireland, that the British state under Prime Minister Tony Blair re-visited the event and established a new inquiry under Lord Saville as one of the sweeteners to facilitate the republican movement’s historic compromise on the issue of Partition.

The Saville Inquiry represented a moral victory for the families and the people of Derry as it found that none of those shot dead had fired weapons, had been armed or had thrown petrol bombs at soldiers as had been claimed and officially verified in the report of the 1972 Inquiry. The publication of the Saville Inquiry report was immediately followed by a formal apology to the families by then British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Prosecutions were then set in train against some of the soldiers who had been named anonymously in the Saville Inquiry but the charges against one of those, Soldier F, were dismissed last year. The families continue to press for prosecutions as part of seeking closure on what happened on January 30, 1972.

The victims were:

Patrick “Paddy” Doherty, aged 31.

Gerald Donaghey, aged 17.

John “Jackie” Duddy, aged 17.

Hugh Gilmour, aged 17.

Michael Kelly, aged 17.

Michael McDaid, aged 20.

Kevin McElhinney, aged 17.

Bernard McGuigan, aged 41.

Gerard McKinney, aged 35.

William McKinney, aged 26.

William Nash, aged 19.

James Wray, aged 22.

John Young, aged 17

John Johnston, aged 59.

There has been much revisionism around the event. No longer does the state broadcaster in the Republic attempt to pretend that it never took place, and commemorations in either part of Ireland are no longer regarded as subversive.

The republican movement has also radically altered its narrative on Bloody Sunday. It is still a sensitive issue among northern Catholics, and in September 2020 Sinn Féin drew the wrath of many nationalists when Michelle O’Neill met at Stormont with Prince Charles, the formal Colonel-in-Chief of the Parachute Regiment.

The party attempts to control not only the iconography and commemoration of the atrocity but has re-interpreted its own history and that of the civil rights movement in order to claim that their being part of the Stormont Executive somehow represents a triumph for the Provisional movement.

It does not, of course, and indeed not only had the Provos totally rejected the very basis of the civil rights demands – which were for the reform of the northern state rather than its destruction – but claimed the proroguing of Stormont later in 1972 as a direct consequence of the IRA campaign as not only a victory in itself but a symbol of the futility of seeking internal reform.

The abolition of any remaining legal discriminations against Catholic in the north may have been an unintended consequence of the IRA campaign, but they were certainly not its objective.

Now, of course Sinn Féin not only administers the north through Stormont but has adopted all of the key demands of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association such as a Bill of Rights, police reform and power sharing. It has required a considerable intellectual rethink alongside a rather tenuous history of the period in order to sustain this narrative.

Some of those who were prominent in NICRA have publicly questioned the claims of leading republicans who have made themselves out to be more prominent than they were. The fact is that at the time of Bloody Sunday, NICRA was politically controlled by members and supporters of the Official IRA and the Communist Party of Northern Ireland who were in competition with more radical left-wing individuals.

Of course, no-one could have foreseen what the outcome of the civil rights campaign that began in the late 1960s might have been. The unionists were mistaken in believing that it was an IRA plot to destroy Northern Ireland; the NICRA leadership under-estimated both the good will of the British state and the prospects of winning cross community support for political reforms, and the IRA was mistaken in believing that an armed campaign would lead to a British withdrawal and a united Ireland.

As with so many other messy endings, the testimony of the victims and their families on all sides remains the only truths, and they are mostly individual. They at least can find some comfort in the fact that their murdered relatives were doing no more than exercising the right of any person to protest against injustice.

 



Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of 
the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland. 

Bloody Sunday ✑ 50 Years Since The Massacre In Derry

The Village ✑ David Cleary knows enough to blackmail the British government.

By David Burke, author of ‘Kitson’s Irish War: Mastermind of the Dirty War in Ireland’.

1. Kitson’s Private Army.

David Cleary is the real name of Soldier F, the Bloody Sunday mass murderer. A judicial review has been brought by the family of some of his victims to reinstate criminal charges against him for their murder. If successful, Cleary will face the genuine prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars. Meanwhile, he is the keeper of many secrets about the events of Bloody Sunday.

Lance Corporal David Cleary was a member of the elite Support Company of the 1st Parachute Regiment which was commanded by Colonel Derek Wilford. Wilford reported upwards to Brigadier Frank Kitson. All were assigned to 39 Brigade area which operated in Belfast and its environs.

Support Company of 1 Para was known as ‘Kitson’s Private Army’ and was infamous for its brutal behaviour in Belfast.

Lance Corporal Cleary was ‘gazetted’ or ‘mentioned in dispatches’ for his “gallant” behaviour during the internment swoops of August 1971. Cleary could not have received that minor honour without the full support of his superiors. Clearly, he was one of the more important soldiers in Kitson’s Private Army.

Continue reading @ The Village.

Soldier F’s Bloody Sunday Secrets

Bloody Sunday 50th Anniversary

Coroner Hubert O'Neill at the Inquest into the massacre described the actions of the state terrorists who carried out the killings as "Sheer Unadulterated Murder".

The verdict has not changed. It remains as it was when Hubert O'Neill delivered that outcome.

An unarmed civilian population was slaughtered on the streets of its own own city in an act of state terrorism.

It was authorized and justified by the British government and judiciary. 

Organised lying by the state was met with determined truth from the blood soaked streets. 

The victims have defeated the vicious. 



"Sheer Unadulterated Murder"

BloodySundayMarch.Org ✒ It's Never Too Late For Truth.



Bloody Sunday Remembered 2021

Padraic Mac Coitir ➨ much has been written about Sinn Féin meeting the English parasites, and despite the criticism levelled at them they continue to meet them. 

It's so pathetic and their comments about those parasites and how much they're helping 'the peace process' prove to anyone - although it's sad many of their members and supporters support this charade- just how far they've gone in appeasing unionists. Foster and her crowd must love it when they see them grovelling in their lush buildings built on land stolen by planters. Just read last paragraph of this article - stomach churning.

Irish Republican News · October 2, 2020

SF meeting with Charles angers Bloody Sunday families

Sinn Féin has come in for stinging criticism for its meeting this week with Prince Charles, the head of the British Army’s Parachute Regiment, less than 24 hours after it was announced that no further charges will be brought over the Bloody Sunday massacre.

Fourteen people were killed and 22 were wounded when ‘the Paras’ opened fire on a peaceful protest against internment in Derry, on Sunday 30 January 1972.

The Bloody Sunday campaign for justice denounced the meeting between Charles Windsor and Sinn Féin’s leader in the North Michelle O’Neill and party chairman Declan Kearney, as “a demeaning betrayal”.

In a press statement, the Bloody Sunday March For Justice Committee said “the fact that representatives of the biggest nationalist party in the North” had travelled to Belfast to greet the commander in chief of the Parachute Regiment had come as “a bomb-shell” to many citizens of Derry, and to members of the Bloody Sunday families in particular.

It is astonishing that this should have happened within 24 hours of the families’ hopes of justice being dashed yet again. With just one exception, all of the members of Prince Charles’s regiment who took part in the Bloody Sunday massacre are to be let off the hook. At least, that’s the British establishment’s plan.
This is a demeaning betrayal. We march for the truth for 50 years, then the leader of the liars is made welcome in our midst!

The outcry recalled for the families another recent controversy when Sinn Féin met Prince Charles during the inquiry into the Ballymurphy massacre, when 11 civilians were killed by his regiment.

“If the lies were over, if Prince Charles and other military commanders were at last to tell the truth and say sorry, he might be entitled to a little bit of respect,” they said. “But he doesn’t have any respect for the people of Derry or for the Bloody Sunday dead.

Prince Charles’ role in the Parachute Regiment isn’t ceremonial. The paras don’t do ceremony. There was nothing ceremonial about what happened around Rossville Street, Glenfada Park, Joseph’s Place, etc.
Murder was done in the name of the State which Prince Charles is heir to. To shake his hand while the bereaved are still hurting is to bring shame on the city.

The recurring meetings between Sinn Féin and the British royals and their awkward timing has raised questions over whether the party is being influenced by a covert British agenda.

The failure to address concerns over the meetings has again had a deeply polarising effect on the republican community. Groups such as the 32 County Sovereignty Committee lashed out.

“What this shows is that quislings Michelle O’Neill and Declan Kearney, like others before them, care nothing for the victims and indeed the families of those murdered on bloody Sunday, nor the families and victims of countless murders by British armed forces in Ireland,” they said.

Former IRA PoW and Blanketman Dixie Elliott described the meeting as a show of arrogance.

“How much longer can they [Sinn Féin] be allowed to hide their duplicity behind a peace process that has lasted nearly as long as the war itself,” he asked.

Speaking to RTE television, Mr Kearney said the meeting had been “very important” for peace efforts. Although the British royals have never made any significant statement on the north of Ireland, Mr Kearney defended their role.

“Prince Charles and his mother have played a significant and positive role in helping us build on the progress,” he said.

Padraic Mac Coitir is a former republican
prisoner and current political activist.

Paras & Parasites

Harry Hutchinson ➨ The decision to uphold the review by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) of fifteen former soldiers implicated in the murder of 13 civilians on Bloody Sunday, will likely exonerate these soldiers from justice. 

In particular it will gloss over the role of Michael Jackson, Commander of the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, which opened fire on the civilians.

What came to be known as Bloody Sunday, or the Bogside Massacre, took place on 30 January 1972 in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland. On that day British soldiers shot twenty-six unarmed civilians, following a peaceful protest march against internment without trial, which had been introduced earlier. Fourteen people died: thirteen killed outright, with another man dying four months later as a result of his injuries.

Shot whilst fleeing

Many of the victims were shot while fleeing from the soldiers and some were even shot while trying to help the wounded. Other protesters were injured by shrapnel, rubber bullets, or batons, and two were run down by army vehicles.

The PPS review, by its Senior Assistant Director Marianne O’Kane, had been sought by the families of the victims. But if found “available evidence insufficient to provide reasonable prospect of convictions.” O’Kane concluded that “the Test for Prosecution is not met on evidential grounds to prosecute any of the 15 soldiers in connection with the specific deaths or injuries sustained on 30th January 1972”.

It is clear that evidence provided by the lawyers of the families was ignored. As was previous evidence, from 2016, on twenty suspects in relation to events on that day (eighteen soldiers and two members of the Official IRA), forwarded by the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Civil Rights demanded equal rights

The 10,000-strong march on that fatal day in January 1972 had been organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. As well as opposing the introduction of detention without trial, the march was demanding equal rights for all citizens in the north. At that time, there was no simple voting system as existed in the rest of the UK, where every adult had the right to a vote. In Northern Ireland, the system was rigged so that Catholics were disenfranchised, to the benefit of Protestants, with the result that it created a divide-and-rule keeping the two communities apart.

A few months before Bloody Sunday, in August 1971, the same Parachute Regiment responsible for the killings in Derry, had shot dead eleven civilians in Ballymurphy, in West Belfast. When internment was introduced, hundreds were detained and mistreated, in effect tortured.

Aimed to crush a mass uprising

The purpose of both these massacres by the British Army was to crush a potential mass uprising among Catholic workers, before it had any opportunity of spreading to Protestant workers, whose economic ‘advantages’ were only marginal. It was a brutal response to what had been simply a demand for democratic rights for all the citizens of Northern Ireland. At the time of the massacre, Bloody Sunday was regarded as equivalent to the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa, in 1960.

Anger at the PPS decision has been expressed by the families of the Bloody Sunday victims, although there is little surprise, because of confidence in British justice is slight. But the victims’ families are refusing to give up the fight and are now considering a further judicial review.

All those involved in the Bloody Sunday massacre face trial, along with Soldier ‘F', who is implicated in the murder of two of the civilians, and a proper application of justice must include those senior officers on duty that day and responsible for the actions of their troops.

A new Bill to legalise torture

The decision of the PPS has come days after the Westminster government has pushed through the second reading of its Overseas Operations Bill, which effectively creates an amnesty for British soldiers accused of mistreatment or tortures overseas.

In evidence given in a session of the House of Commons Human Rights Committee, it became clear that “torture” had originally been exempted from the Bill, along with “sexual violence”, but ministers subsequently removed these exemptions.

The Bill will end the right of anyone to bring a legal case against serving or former British soldiers for offences alleged to have been committed more than five years before. It has even been criticised by senior military officers, as well as human rights groups, who have said it act as a "licence to torture".

Labour’s lack of opposition is a disgrace

Disgracefully, the official policy of the Parliamentary Labour Party was to abstain on voting on this Bill, on the spurious grounds of parliamentary procedure: Labour says it will try to “improve” the bill at committee stage. It was therefore only fifteen Labour rebels, including Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, who voted against. Even the Campaign Group of so-called ‘left’ MPs couldn’t muster their thirty-odd members to vote against. If this is an example of Labour’s “opposition” to the Tories, it will fall flat, like the Tory-lite opposition of Ed Miliband.

Labour should a champion of those who have suffered injustices, including the families bereaved by the Bloody Sunday massacre. Labour should be demanding that there are proper legal restraints, safeguards and accountability on all the operations of British forces overseas, including operations and incidents unearthed in the past.

⏩ Harry Hutchinson: Labour Left Alliance Member, Labour Party Northern Ireland Member.

Bloody Sunday Soldiers Escape Justice As New Tory Bill Gives Sanction To Overseas Torture

Matt Treacy ➨ I’m sure it never crossed their minds, but the visit of the Prince of Wales to Stormont to meet his Mam’s two Governor Generals was perceived to have been a tad insensitive by relatives of those killed on Bloody Sunday, the day after the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) announced that there would be no further prosecutions of soldiers who were involved.

 
The Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill has come in for some criticism for having met the Colonel in Chief of the Parachute Regiment which was responsible for the killings on January 30, 1972.

These are the things you have to do when you are a responsible statesperson, and she did not pull a sickie to avoid meeting him as she had done when Trump’s newly appointed Special Envoy to the north Mick Mulvaney was formally presented in Belfast on Monday.

Only one of the soldiers involved in the murders, Soldier F, has been formally charged but relatives like Kate Nash whose brother William was one of the victims want to see more brought to justice. The relatives now intend to seek a judicial review into the decision of the PPS.

This again highlights the difficulties surrounding so-called “legacy” issues in the north, including killings for which nobody has been charged. A particularly glaring example was highlighted in Seán Murray’s Unquiet Graves which was recently shown on RTE. There is obviously a whole nest of unsavoury links to various branches of the British armed forces and intelligence network in Ireland that has not been officially acknowledged.

In May, the British Government decided that it would not proceed with any further prosecutions of former soldiers which nationalists claim is in contravention of the Stormont House Agreement. That was signed in December 2014 in an unsuccessful attempt to save the Sinn Féin/DUP coalition on the Stormont Executive, but apparently still stands.

While Sinn Féin has been among those making that claim, the Agreement was somewhat vague. It established an Historical Inquiries Unit which under Section 36 would have “”full policing powers” under supervision by the Northern Ireland Policing Board. However, significantly, Section 35 sets out that any decision to prosecute based on the investigations of the HIU rests with the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The commitment to address all of this was very vague in the January 2020 programme for government agreed between Sinn Féin and the DUP. It merely noted the need to “doing everything possible to heal wounds and eliminate the issues that divide us.” Sinn Féin would no doubt argue that there was no need to be more specific because the Stormont House Agreement had set the parameters for dealing with the past.

Obviously it did not, and the worth of anything agreed by the parties in Stormont is surely not much if, as claimed and would appear to be the case, that the British Government can simply make decisions with regard to any possible prosecutions arising from the investigation of cases from the past, without paying any heed to Belfast.

There is also the moral issue regarding the responsibility for actions on all sides in the conflict, whether on the part of the state or republican and loyalist armed organisations. While those who carried out actions leading to deaths were ultimately responsible for what they did, there is also the issue of corporate responsibility.

That is obviously understood when it comes to attributing blame to republican and loyalist groups, but apart from an apology given to the relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims, there has never been any question of officially examining the direct role of those in command of British armed or intelligence units, much less any former Government minister or department for events such as Bloody Sunday with a view to identifying those at the top who gave the orders.

It is understandable that the relatives of people killed on all sides mostly do want closure in the form of legal retribution, or at the very least an attribution of fault. On the other hand there are those who include former IRA and UVF members interviewed as the legacy issues addressed in the Stormont House Agreement were open to consultation; that no old men in their 70s or 80s on any side should be dragged into court.

 

 The South African process seems to have been a success, but it dealt with far fewer deaths in either absolute or relative comparison to the north. Nor did it have to deal so much with the living memories and distrust of communities who still live uneasily beside one another. Perhaps, though, there might be more progress in discovering the truth about the past, including Bloody Sunday, if everyone involved had immunity?


Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland.
He is currently working on a number of other books; His latest one is a novel entitled Houses of Pain. It is based on real events in the Dublin underworld. Houses of Pain is published by MTP and is currently available online as paperback and kindle while book shops remain closed.

No More Prosecutions For Bloody Sunday ➖ Yet Relatives Want Answers

Anthony McIntyre feels that little has changed within the DUP in terms of contempt towards nationalist civilians killed by British state security services. 

When the UVF member and DUP councillor, George Seawright suggested that Belfast City Council build an incinerator "to burn Roman Catholics and their priests, his expulsion from the Paisley-led party swiftly followed. 

That was 35 years ago and Seawright, if not his legacy, is long since dead. Despite the much vaunted modernisation the DUP is said to have undergone, the same type of visceral anti-nationalist toxicity continues to exist. The difference is that today, rather than being sanctioned, it is rewarded. 

Earlier this week the DUP announced the replacement of its North Belfast councillor for Castle DEA, Guy Spence. The man chosen to fill the shoes of Spence is Dean McCullough who greeted his appointment by claiming:

I am delighted to take up this role and to serve the people of the Castle DEA. It is an area that I know well, having been born and raised there. I also look forward to joining the DUP team on Belfast City Council, being a positive voice for north Belfast and for our city as a whole.

His party leader, Arlene Foster, was effusive in her praise for McCullough. 

Dean will be an excellent representative for the Castle DEA. He has a track record of community involvement across north Belfast and alongside Cllr Fred Cobain will continue to provide first-class representation in that area.

How first class his service will be is a moot point given that he seems to subscribe to the view that nationalists should be treated as second class citizens, unworthy of the same rights to justice as other citizens. Those whose loved ones were unlawfully killed by British state security forces are most unlikely to share Foster's enthusiasm for her new councillor. This is because McCullough is an avid backer of those who have committed atrocity against unarmed nationalist civilians. When asked by myself in 2017 “what should happen to those who slaughtered the innocent on Bloody Sunday?”, McCullough's reply was that the “brave and professional paratroopers should be given a medal.’

He also described the most prolific killer on the day, Soldier F, as a gallant veteran even though his gallantry amounted to him personally massacring four of the fourteen unarmed civilians.


The conservative writer Douglas Murray sat through the evidence of the Bloody Sunday killers at the Saville Inquiry and concluded that he could say with “certainty that they include not only unapologetic killers, but unrelenting liars" and that soldier F “started lying from the moment the shooting stopped … if anyone was deserving of prosecution, then it was him.” Seemingly, none of that matters to Councillor McCullough, presumably seeing such mendacity as Soldier F behaving with chivalry.  

When Sinn Fein’s Westminster MP Barry McElduff was accused of mocking the dead of Kingsmill, the DUP howled for his head on a plate. He subsequently resigned his seat, leaving Arlene Foster to proclaim:

He was not fit for public office and should have resigned in the immediate aftermath of posting the disgraceful video mocking and insulting the horrific terrorist events at Kingsmill … Over the course of the last 10 days Sinn Fein has failed to deal with the McElduff situation … By merely suspending him and continuing to pay him, they compounded his disgraceful actions and demonstrated a lack of respect and compassion for the victims of Kingsmill and indeed victims more widely.

And Dean McCullough's sentiments are somehow less egregious?

Kingsmill so resembles Bloody Sunday because it was a war crime on a par with what happened in Derry – the wanton massacre of unarmed civilians. A razor blade could not make its way through any ethical gap that exists between the two. The wilful injustice in eulogising the perpetrators of one while denigrating those culpable for the other should find no hiding place behind a flag of convenience. In the words of Howard Zinn, "there is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."

A sister of one of those massacred by Soldier F and his homicidal troop feels that McCullough should walk the same plank that McElduff was forced to tread. Kate Nash said this morning:

I am appalled at the DUP who recently welcomed Dean McCullough into their ranks in Belfast City Council. This man holds the view that the Paratroopers on Bloody Sunday should have been given medals. Even with the limited knowledge that The Bloody Sunday Inquiry concluded it is clear that this man paid no attention whatsoever. He is not fit to represent anyone. He quite obviously approves violence against innocent people by the state. The DUP called for the resignation of Barry McElduff for his mockery of the Kingsmill victims and rightly so. Surely the DUP have some kind of vetting procedure in place to ensure that potential candidates have the good character that people deserve. It is long overdue for the electorate not to have bigots, or indeed extremists to have any influence on decisions made by local government. At a time when we need the very best of people, at a time of loss of life to Covid-19 surely we need people who care. Dean McCullough should leave his position immediately and shame on the DUP !! Just to inform and educate Mr McCullough the Paratroopers did get decorated for their actions on Bloody Sunday!!

The Indian writer Arundhati Roy once stated that "justice out of the mouth of a politician almost always means revenge. Always justice against an enemy, never justice for all."

What say you Arlene?

New DUP Councillor Endorses Massacre Regiment And Its Most Prolific Killer

Pádraic Mac Coitir writing in  An Spréach Magazine, Jan - Feb 2019, recalls Bloody Sunday. 

Ireland has seen many Bloody Sundays, the most infamous of which happened in Croke Park and in Derry. During the Tan War the IRA was very active in Dublin and after gathering intelligence on RIC and British army personnel local units attacked them in lodgings, killing 14. This was a pivotal moment during that phase of struggle.

Later that day the British army and RIC drove in armoured vehicles to Croke Park where a match between Dublin and Tipperary was taking place. After positioning themselves in and around the pitch they opened fire on the players and supporters killing 14. This happened on 21st November 1920 and within a short time became known as Bloody Sunday.

Growing up in Lenadoon in Belfast I read some books about the Tan war and my heroes at that time were Tom Barry and Ernie O'Malley. I also read novels such as those written by Walter Macken. It was the action, as opposed to the politics, in those books that left an impression on me.

When the most recent conflict started in 1969 I would hear my parents and their friends talk of historical events and how things may be repeated in Belfast and other parts of the 6 Counties. Things did indeed get bad with the British army, RUC and unionist gangs killing many Catholics, nationalists and republicans. Lenadoon had been quieter than other parts but that was to change when internment was brought in by the British in August 1971. Heavy rioting took place on an almost daily basis and the IRA became very active with bombings and shootings against an enemy that heavily outnumbered them.

Every day after school me and my mates would go looking riots in and around Andersonstown and for us it was one big adventure. Of course there were times when it got frightening especially if we were caught up in gun battles or when the British army snatch squads chased us. Hundreds of rubber bullets were being fired and we saw a lot of people getting seriously hurt. I was hit a number of times but fortunately only around the legs so it was mostly bad bruising.

Most nights we went to the local youth club in Oliver Plunkett school and although the youth leaders tried to keep us inside whenever the British army was driving or walking past we would inevitably get out to throw bottles and bricks and occasionally the rioting would last for hours. On Sunday afternoon 30th January 1972 my friends and I were on our way to the youth club when we saw older people standing at Lenadoon shops so we went over to hear what was going on. Some were crying and others were very angry as they started to talk about many people being killed in Derry. We were so young we didn't understand the full significance of it but we knew this was something very serious. Some were saying it was worse than what took place the previous August when many people were killed, the majority of them in Ballymurphy. We then walked up to the youth club and on the way people were standing at their doors listening to their radios. When we got into the club the leaders spoke to us and told us many were killed and they told us the club would be closing and we should go straight home. We didn't go home but walked around the estate and it was unbelievable how many people were out even though it was very cold.

When I got home my mother and her friends were sitting in the kitchen and they were in a very sombre mood. And when I asked how many had been killed they said reports were coming in of at least twenty dead and even more injured. 

Next morning when I got up to go to school I looked out the window and saw some IRA men hi-jacking lorries at the back of Lenadoon shops. I rushed out and as I knew one or two I asked if I could go with them. They said I should be going to school but I pleaded with them and they let me into the front of the cab and we drove off. I was in my element and thought this was my big chance to see 'real' action. There was very little traffic on the roads and the lads said there were no British soldiers to be seen. I was very excited as they drove down the Shaw's Road then towards my school, La Salle. I still had my uniform on under my parka jacket and I was nervous as I thought they were going to tell me to get out. We drove into the school grounds and most of the teachers were standing at the steps and all the pupils were looking out the windows. The local units must have been told to drive hi-jacked vehicles to the school because there must have been about half dozen other lorries there. My form teacher and other teachers saw me but didn't say anything to me. Many years later I spoke to my form teacher and he too recalled that day when I was in the lorry and the terrible events that had taken place.

The hi-jacked lorries were driven to the Shaw's Road and used to barricade the streets. More pupils left the local schools and within a short time hundreds were out and we were all standing around talking of what happened the previous day. In Derry a protest rally was held calling for the ending of internment and thousands took part. It left the Creggan and wound its way through the streets of the Brandywell and the Bogside before being stopped by the British army in the city centre. Tensions were running high and there were some minor scuffles between a small number of protesters and the Brits, most of whom were from the Parachute regiment. Water cannons were used and this led to even more rioting. The British army charged the protesters and they ran the short distance to the Bogside. Within minutes live rounds were fired into the crowd and 28 unarmed people were shot, fourteen of whom were killed. We believed the events of Bloody Sunday would prove to be a turning point for the IRA. That year was to become the most violent with almost 500 killed, including 130 British soldiers.

A number of the lorries were set on fire as we heard dozens of British army vehicles approaching and when they arrived serious rioting took place. We also heard a lot of shooting and people were running about saying it was the IRA (or the Ra or the boys as we called them). Rioting and shooting took place throughout the day in our own and other republican areas. Protests and rallies were taking place throughout the country and the people of Dublin vented their anger by burning the British embassy to the ground.

When the funerals were over many called for an inquiry into the deaths in Derry and the day became known as Bloody Sunday. Within days the British government said they would initiate an inquiry but many people were reluctant to take part claiming it would be yet another whitewash. A senior British judge, Widgery, was appointed and within months published a report exonerating the British army from any wrongdoing. This led to even more anger and again we all thought this would be a major turning point in the struggle. But the British establishment were unmoved and they brought in even more draconian laws. In fact some of those responsible for the massacre were decorated for their 'services' to the British crown. Another inquiry was carried out by this by a leading British judge called Saville and he published a report years later. Some of those campaigning for truth and justice about what happened on Sunday 30th January 1972 believed the Saville inquiry afforded them a degree of 'closure'. However, many others were of the opinion that the Saville Report didn't go far enough and they continue to seek justice.


Padraic Mac Coitir is a former republican prisoner and current political activist.

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