The 1972 march had been called to oppose the internment without trial of thousands of civil rights and republican activists by Britain in August 1971. For three decades, campaigners against British rule in the north have fought for the perpetrators of the massacre--including those who gave the orders--be brought to account.

The February 2 march retraced the steps of the protest 31 years ago. Family members of those killed formed the first rank, each carrying a named cross. Groups from all over Ireland joined the protest, some carrying banners from Sinn Fein, the leadership of the fight for a united Ireland, and its youth organization, as well as the Palestine Solidarity Committee. Some carried torches bearing the names of state massacres around the world with the numbers who died. "We are showing our solidarity with them," said John Kelly of the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign, representing families of those killed.

As the march wound down through the houses of the Creggan and Bogside areas, working people lined the route and joined the protest, making up the bulk of the marchers.

Noting the many young participants, Paul O’Neill from New Lodge in Belfast told the Militant that "things are never going back to the way they were before, that’s why they’re here."

The march ended in a rally at Free Derry Corner in Derry’s Bogside area. Speakers included Michael McKinney of the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign; Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness of Sinn Fein; Mark Durkan of the Social Democratic and Labour Party; and Minty Thompson of the Open the Files campaign.

"We will have an accounting for the actions of the British state on our streets," said Michael McKinney in his report on the current British government inquiry into the 1972 events. Senior British political and military figures are being allowed to evade questioning at the inquiry sessions, he said.

Adams criticized the British government’s "resistance to change," referring to its foot-dragging in response to demands to reveal the truth about Bloody Sunday, and its suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly on the grounds that the Irish Republican Army had not surrendered all its weapons. "There is no way that the status quo that used to exist can ever be brought back," he said. "The people murdered on Bloody Sunday were part of a risen people," Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein had said earlier.

The "Open the Files" campaign, said Thompson, aims to tear down London’s cover-up of other British Army actions. "My mother was shot in the garden of our house," Thompson said. "Afterwards we got nothing but lies. We say open the files, unlock the truth!"
 
Bloody Sunday inquiry
In the face of ongoing protests, London was forced to open a new inquiry in 1998. A 1972 inquiry that exonerated the military was discredited by the determined international campaign for the truth led by family members of those killed.

The new inquiry moved to London in September to hear British political and military witnesses, after holding sessions in Derry for two years.

"We didn’t want it here; it’s their territory. They hoped we’d go away but they didn’t reckon on the type of people we are," said Kay Duddy, whose brother Jack was among the 14 killed. "We are going to get the truth."

The testifying of Sir Edward Heath, the British prime minister at the time of the massacre, was a victory for the campaign. Heath claimed ignorance of the buildup to the bloodletting, including of preparations to send the paratroop regiment involved.

John Kelly said, "We want an admitting of the truth, but the hardest part is pinning the blame on those really responsible."  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home