Londonderry Jan. 30 (BUS): Five decades after British soldiers killed 13 unarmed Catholic civil rights protesters in one of the crucial days of the Northern Ireland conflict, relatives are still searching for the justice they believe is necessary for a scarred society. .
The families and friends of the 13 Catholics who died in Londonderry on “Bloody Sunday,” January 30, 1972 – and the 14th who later died of his wounds – gathered this week for a series of celebrations marking the event that helped fuel three decades of bitter sectarian and political violence.
While a 2010 judicial inquiry concluded that the victims were innocent and posed no threat to the military, the celebrations come just months after prosecutors said the only British soldier accused of the murder would not face trial, according to Reuters.
“Our generation is dying very slowly … and we’d like to see it do justice when we’re still alive,” said Jane Hegarty, whose brother Kevin McElhenney was shot dead at the age of 17. Experience.
“My head would say no, but my heart still wanted to believe we could see at least some soldiers facing court,” she said.
The Northern Ireland peace process of 1998 was praised around the world for its success in ending a conflict in which more than 3,000 people were killed.
Irish nationalist militants seeking unification with the Republic of Ireland faced off against the British Army and Loyalists bent on keeping the province British.
But after nearly a quarter of a century of peace, the bitterness still lingers.
Several flags of the British Army’s Parachute Regiment, whose members shot protesters, were hung from lampposts in the city in the run-up to the festivities, something that has become an annual ritual. The cohort condemned the work.
A prominent member of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland complained that “countless words” had been written about “Bloody Sunday” but little about two soldiers shot dead by Irish nationalist gunmen a few days earlier.
While the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has been responsible for about half of the deaths in the conflict, nationalists argue that the violence was driven by an oppressive state that denied them their rights – rarely more evident than on Bloody Sunday.
“I am disappointed with the aggressiveness of the politicians,” Hgarty said. “In some ways, there hasn’t been much change. In some ways, it has been a ton.”
This weekend’s festivities will include a memorial service in Londonderry’s main square and a play centered on the famous image of the priest Edward Daly holding a white handkerchief to British soldiers as the men attempt to carry a dying man to safety.
Director Kieran Griffiths, who has worked closely with relatives, said the play will be performed entirely by locals in a city where January 30 remains “a real, deeply moving”.
Glenn Doherty, whose father Patrick was among those killed on Bloody Sunday, believes the relatives had more confinement than most of those affected by the conflict. The detailed investigation prompted then British Prime Minister David Cameron in 2010 to apologize for the “unexplained and unexplained killings”.
The current British government announced last year a plan to stop all prosecutions of soldiers and gunmen in an effort to draw a line under the conflict – a move that angered relatives and was rejected by all major local political parties.
“We’re kind of lucky – if you can call it lucky – and we kind of have the answers to what happened,” Doherty said.
“It is rather difficult to achieve any kind of reconciliation … when the British government is trying to close the door on any possibility” of justice, he added.
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