Letter: Britain's duty over agony of Bloody Sunday
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: Today is the 25th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Derry, when 14 unarmed civilians were mortally wounded by British troops in what became a key recruiting sergeant for the then fledgling Provisional IRA.
Furthermore, the tribunal headed by the then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Widgery, did not hear all relevant evidence. The tribunal is still widely perceived as having failed to comprehensively document the events that led to the killing of 14 unarmed civilians. Whether deliberately or accidentally, the tribunal added fuel to the fire.
For the past 25 years, Bloody Sunday has remained a running sore and has underpinned the fears of many law-abiding Catholics that they are or could become second-class citizens. It has also been ruthlessly exploited by the Provisional IRA and its apologists to justify unjustifiable political violence.
However, the British government has made some movement on this issue. In particular, there was the Prime Minister's statement in 1992, which was a response to our representations, that those killed on that fateful day "should be regarded as having been found not guilty of having been shot whilst handling a firearm or bomb". A year later, in response to John Hume, Mr Major said that those killed were "innocent".
We strongly urge the British government to build on this and take decisive moves to help put the justified sorrow concerning Bloody Sunday behind us.
It should waive the 30-year rule on relevant historical documents and institute an independent inquiry, with independent British, Irish and other historians, to investigate new claims made in Don Mullan's recent book (which gives new evidence that marchers came under fire from other troops in the area), to examine the outcome of the Widgery Tribunal and, crucially, to apologise to the relatives of those who were killed.
We believe that such actions would not only bring comfort to the families of those killed but would also help undermine the ruthless way in which the Provisional IRA has hypocritically exploited Bloody Sunday for its propaganda purposes, by putting a line under this tragic event.
HARRY BARNES MP
(Derbyshire North East, Lab)
PETER BOTTOMLEY MP
(Eltham, C)
House of Commons
London SW1
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments