Bloody Sunday 51 years on: There is no British justice

On January 30th 1972, over 30,000 people peacefully marched into the city of Derry, as part of a march organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) in protest against British internment and British occupation over the North of Ireland.

As almost all protestors had reached the centre of Derry, heavily armed British soldiers who were part of the airborne Parachute Regiment, then kettled protestors and began to indiscriminately open fire on unarmed protestors, murdering 14, wounding 17 and arresting hundreds more.

We remember this tragic day in history as ‘Bloody Sunday’.

Inspired by the civil rights movement in the USA, NICRA were founded in 1967 to campaign against the widespread and rampant discrimination of the native Irish Catholic population in Northern Ireland, from housing and employment to the prolific gerrymandering of elections, to their campaigning against the Special Powers Act of 1922.

"As soon as the last British bullet of Bloody Sunday had been fired, British soldiers instantaneously colluded with British politicians in labelling the defenceless protesters they had wounded and murdered as ‘gunmen’ and ‘bombers’"

‘The Civil Authorities Act Northern Ireland 1922’, commonly known as the ‘Special Powers Act’ was one of the most repressive acts, and was barbarously administered across Northern Ireland for over 50 years.

This act granted powers to the state and occupying forces, such as arrest without warrant, detain and intern without trial, flogging, torture, the death penalty and prohibited basic civil liberties such as freedom of assembly and speech.

As soon as the last British bullet of Bloody Sunday had been fired, British soldiers instantaneously colluded with British politicians in labelling the defenceless protesters they had wounded and murdered as ‘gunmen’ and ‘bombers’, even going so far as planting nail bombs on one victims body, to reinforce their false claims.

The British government then established a ‘public inquiry’ just three months after the massacre, under Lord Chief Justice Widgery, who had written a deliberately biased report that stood by the soldiers version of events, and not the testimonies of the thousands who had attended the march.

The irrepressible Eamonn McCann (@eamonderry) speaking in front of the new 'Verdict' mural in Derry.

Bloody Sunday March #JailJackson pic.twitter.com/xqCSChDElX

— People Before Profit (@pb4p) January 27, 2023

This became the British government's version of events, which was not officially repudiated for 38 years. The Widgery Inquiry was deemed so inherently biased and unjust that it was branded the ‘Widgery whitewash’ by the grieving families of the victims.

The geographical location where Bloody Sunday took place is as important as any detail of what unravelled on that day 51 years ago. The city of Derry is the second largest city of British crafted ‘Northern Ireland’, with even its name being a point of contention.

Whilst the Irish Catholic community and most of the city’s inhabitants would today refer to the city as ‘Derry’, the British Protestant community refer to it as ‘Londonderry’. During the British colonisation of Ireland in 1613, King James I of England renamed the city from Doirè, as native Irish people called it then, to ‘Londonderry’, in recognition of the English investors of the Ulster Plantation located within the city.

Today the British government as well as loyalist political parties who view Northern Ireland as part of Britain will still refer to the city as ‘Londonderry’.

In Republican areas of the North, you will also find street signs that have sprayed graffiti over the ‘London’ part of the sign, as it is seen as both a bloody legacy and reminder of the brutalities of British colonialism in Ireland.

Derry, a city of contention even down to its own very name, was the place this march had to be 51 years ago, and had a long history of systemic discrimination and gerrymandering that deprived the Irish/Catholic community of political representation and their fundamental right to vote.

In Derry in 1967, the year NICRA was founded, Unionists held over 60% of the seats despite only having 30% of all overall votes. This was because the democratic principle of ‘one man one vote’, was stripped from the Irish/Catholic majority of the city, as electoral boundaries were strategically redrawn, and Protestant landowners given multiple votes. These systemic inequalities were the reason so many people mobilised under NICRA’s leadership and marched to Derry 51 years ago.

For 38 years, ‘Bloody Sunday’ became one of the most controversial and disputed events of Britain’s recent history, with the British government colluding with the soldiers responsible, to absolve themselves of any accountability and instead vilifying the victims for decades.

"It took 38 years, and the longest and most expensive public inquiry in British history, for the British government to acknowledge the truth of what had happened during Bloody Sunday, but it still failed to hold a single British soldier responsible"

From 1968-1974, British undercover police known as ‘Spy Cops’, known for spying on political and progressive groups and grieving families, stealing dead children's identities, and embarking on long-term relationships with activists, were profusely spying on and interfering with the work of NICRA before, during and after Bloody Sunday.

Following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the Saville Inquiry was set up to officially investigate Bloody Sunday to further the peace efforts of the newly signed agreement.

The Saville Inquiry lasted 12 years and cost over £200 million and finally closed in 2010, with the then Prime Minister David Cameron making an official public statement, vindicating the 14 victims of Bloody Sunday as innocent and unarmed, and calling out the role of British soldiers as ‘unjustified and unjustifiable’.

It took 38 years, and the longest and most expensive public inquiry in British history, for the British government to acknowledge the truth of what had happened during Bloody Sunday, but it still failed to hold a single British soldier responsible.

For 51 years the families of the victims of Bloody Sunday have been tirelessly campaigning to hold the British Soldiers responsible. This year, activists have created a new ‘Verdict’ mural of General Mike Jackson, and are demanding that he be prosecuted for his role in the murders. 

For decades the British Government has protected and granted anonymity to the perpetrators, and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has financially covered all the legal fees of soldiers facing criminal charges.

The MoD has defended its decision by saying, “the welfare of our personnel and veterans is of the utmost importance to us”. But their care is selective, given that there are over 6,000 homeless veterans in the UK, thousands more suffering without treatment for PTSD and living in absolute poverty.

Marking a harrowing 51 years without justice for the victims of Bloody Sunday, British politicians will routinely regurgitate the same few sentences of disingenuous respects as they do every year, while dishonestly framing Bloody Sunday as a ‘lone tragedy’, a one off incident where ‘things just went wrong’, and doing everything in their power to defend the soldiers responsible for murder.

"Bloody Sunday was not an isolated injustice, it is one of countless British state-sanctioned massacres of innocent Irish civilians"

Bloody Sunday was not an isolated injustice, it is one of countless British state-sanctioned massacres of innocent Irish civilians. Justice is long overdue for all Irish victims of British imperialism, from Bloody Sunday to Springhill to Ballymurphy.

Justice must be obtained for the victims, soldiers must face accountability, and the British state must finally be held responsible for their crimes, whether in Ireland, Iraq, Kenya, India, Palestine, and everywhere else their imperialism has and continues to inflict violence.

Farrah Koutteineh is head of Public & Legal Relations at the London-based Palestinian Return Centre, and is also the founder of KEY48 - a voluntary collective calling for the immediate right of return of over 7.2 million Palestinian refugees. Koutteineh is also a political activist focusing on intersectional activism including, the Decolonise Palestine movement, indigenous peoples rights, anti-establishment movement, women’s rights and climate justice.

Follow her on Twitter and Instagram: @key48return

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