From the BBC:
“Bloody Sunday: David Cameron
wanted 'no doubt' over apology”
David Cameron has said his
apology for Bloody Sunday made it clear there was no doubt what happened was
wrong. When the Saville Inquiry was released in 2010, he apologised for the
"unjustified and unjustifiable" deaths. Ahead of the 50th
anniversary, the ex-prime minister said that was a "proper apology"
that left no room for doubt.
Thirteen people were shot dead
when soldiers opened fire on civil rights demonstrators in Londonderry on 30 January
1972. After reading the Saville Inquiry into the day's events, Mr Cameron
considered how he felt about what he had read, he told BBC Talkback's William
Crawley. "It seemed to me that those words [unjustified and unjustifiable]
best summed it up," he said. "You couldn't leave any doubt. "Unjustified
and unjustifiable means let's not go on arguing about this, what happened was
wrong, full stop, end of and let's make a proper apology. "Sometimes with
these sort of events politicians - and I can be guilty of this - qualify the
apology or shade around the edges. "On this occasion it needed to be
absolutely direct and clear."
'One of the darkest days' Mr
Cameron made the remarks in the House of Commons and said he was unsure how
they would be received in Derry. He added: "I remember watching the
news later that day and being very moved by the scenes and understanding how
much this had meant to people." Mr Cameron said he understood why
the Bloody Sunday families continued to seek justice. "Obviously
one feels incredible sympathy for people who have been through that appalling
experience," he said. "Then it's really a double jeopardy, of
having your relatives suffer in that and for so long not having a faithful
account of what actually happened, and taking so long for the truth to come out
and of course you understand why those people want not just the truth but the
justice that should follow."
Meanwhile, Taoiseach (Irish Prime
Minister) Micheál Martin has said the events of Bloody Sunday were indelibly
imprinted on the minds of families across the island of Ireland. On Sunday he
will lay a wreath at a memorial service in Derry - the first serving taoiseach
to do so. "It was a huge turning point in some respects and remains on as
an enduring injustice at the heart of the Northern Ireland Troubles," Mr
Martin told BBC Radio Foyle. He paid tribute to the "persistence, dignity,
and resilience" of the Bloody Sunday victims' families, some of whom he
will meet privately on Sunday. He added: "The journey of justice was a
long one, but I think it now stands as a monument in itself and an inspiration
to others around the world. "They got the truth, they got a state apology
from the British prime minister and they got support from subsequent Irish
governments but it went on too long". Politicians, he added, must learn
from the past and save future generations from violence.
An anniversary mass was held in
St Mary's Church in the city on Friday, at which Bishop Donal McKeown said the
people of Derry had shown "great dignity and courage" in the
intervening 50 years. "The suffering endured has borne the seed of
solidarity and not merely of anger," he told those gathered. "It
takes a wise heart to look at the rubble of what has been shattered in the past
and to make it into a foundation for the future."
On Wednesday, Prime Minister
Boris Johnson also paid tribute to the Bloody Sunday victims' families during
Prime Minister's Questions. Mr Johnson described it as "one of the darkest
days in our history" and said in the run up to the anniversary "we
must learn from the past, reconcile and build a shared and prosperous
future". Two public inquiries have been carried out into the events of
Bloody Sunday.
The Widgery Tribunal, which was
announced shortly after Bloody Sunday, largely cleared the soldiers and British
authorities of blame.
The Saville Inquiry, published in
2010, found none of the casualties were posing a threat or doing anything that
would justify their shooting. The then Prime Minister David Cameron issued an
apology on behalf of the state in the House of Commons, saying the killings
were "unjustified and unjustifiable".
Following the publication of the Saville Inquiry, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) began a murder investigation in 2010. It took a number of years to complete and detectives then submitted their files to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) towards the end of 2016. Having weighed up 125,000 pages of material, prosecutors said on 14 March they would prosecute a soldier, known only as Soldier F, for the murders of James Wray and William McKinney on Bloody Sunday.
Soldier F also faced charges for
the attempted murders of Patrick O'Donnell, Joseph Friel, Joe Mahon and Michael
Quinn. On 2 July 2021, it was announced Soldier F would not face trial
following a decision by the PPS. The PPS said after "careful
consideration" the decision had been taken due to another recent court
ruling which found evidence being relied upon in the prosecution of Soldier A
and Soldier C for the killing of Joe McCann was inadmissible. This was due to
the circumstances in which the evidence was obtained. The decision not to
proceed with the case is now the subject of live judicial review proceedings
following a legal challenge brought by a brother of one of the Bloody Sunday
victims.
^ I was in Northern Ireland in
June 2010 when the British Prime Minster apologized for the murder. That same
day we left Belfast for Derry/Londonderry (Catholics call it Derry and
Protestants call it Londonderry.)
Sadly, 12 years after the Official
Apology none of the Soldiers in the 1st Parachute Regiment of the
British Military (that committed the murders) have been brought to justice. They
continue to have their names officially withheld by the British Government and keep
the Awards and Medals (some from Queen Elizabeth herself) they received for
their “service” – that service was the murder of unarmed, peaceful Civilians
who were targeted and murdered because they were Catholic.
All of this may sound surprising,
but you have to remember that the United Kingdom (like Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, etc.) are officially a Protestant Country and so the murder of non-Protestants
(like Catholics) and the decades-old British Government and Military Cover-Up
means little to them. If Protestants were murdered then that would be a
different story. ^
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