Northern Ireland: Commemoration of “Bloody Sunday”

With a memorial march, Northern Ireland commemorated the victims of “Bloody Sunday” 50 years ago, when 13 demonstrators were shot dead and 15 injured by British soldiers in Derry – British Londonderry.

50 years after “Bloody Sunday”, Northern Ireland has commemorated one of the worst chapters in the decades-long conflict between Catholics and Protestants in the British provinces. On January 30, 1972, soldiers from a British paratrooper battalion shot at a Catholic civil rights march in the city of Derry. Thirteen people were killed, and another victim died months later – but not from his injuries, as investigations have now shown.

Hundreds of people, including relatives of the victims, silently followed the traces of the march in the city of Derry, which the Protestants call Londonderry, in the morning. Children with white roses and portraits of the victims joined the procession.

First time Prime Minister of Ireland at the commemoration

At a ceremony at the memorial to the victims, a minute’s silence was held after their names were read and wreaths were laid. Ireland’s Prime Minister Michael Martin was also present at the ceremony. It was the first time an Irish Prime Minister had attended. Martin laid a wreath with his Secretary of State, Simon Coveney.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also recalled “Bloody Sunday”, which was one of the darkest days of the decades-long conflict. “We must learn from the past, reconcile and build a peaceful future for the people of Northern Ireland,” Johnson tweeted.

However, critics accuse him of not being interested in a real work-up. The government in London is planning a law that will make any criminal prosecution, civil process or even just public investigations in connection with the Northern Ireland conflict impossible.

“Bloody Sunday” had driven many young Catholics into the arms of the paramilitary Irish Republican Army (IRA), which was fighting at gunpoint for a union of Northern Ireland with Ireland. More than 3,500 people have been killed in the three-decade conflict. It only ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

Enlightenment only after four decades

It took almost 40 years for the British government to admit in 2010 that soldiers had opened fire on the crowd and not the other way around – and that the protesters were unarmed. After the investigative report was released, then-Prime Minister David Cameron formally apologized for these “unjustified and unjustifiable” acts.

So far, no soldier has been sentenced for the fatal shooting on “Bloody Sunday”. Although murder charges were brought against one of them in 2019, they were dropped for legal reasons.