Remembering Bloody Sunday

In the 50 years since the massacre of innocent British Citizens by the British State, there is still much to be done by the government to accept responsibility for the role that it played on Bloody Sunday.

In this weekend’s edition of the Morning Star, Mick Carty, general secretary of the Connolly Association and Richard Rudkin, a former British soldier that served in Northern Ireland, highlight the lies and harm that past and current governments have perpetuated, and the role of the mainstream media in their unchecked repetition of these lies. No change there then.

The propaganda spread at the time was that the British Army were returning fire after an IRA gunman had shot at them. This was the account of the Ministry of Defence; subsequently reiterated unchecked and unchallenged by the mainstream press. This remained the case until the publication of the Saville Report in 2010, which categorically stated that the deaths of unarmed civilians were as former Prime Minister David Cameron described ‘unjustified and unjustifiable’. The report also concluded that the soldiers not only fired without warning on civilians, but also those coming to their assistance. Furthermore, in an attempt to cover up, Saville concluded that many of the former British soldiers lied, putting forward falsified accounts of the events that day.

The entirely predictable outcome of Bloody Sunday was that it rightly outraged many members of the Catholic community, many of whom until that point had been largely indifferent to the presence of the British Army; the result of which was to galvanise many republicans to swell the ranks of the IRA.

A notable exception to the broad acceptance of the MoD version of events was the Irish Democrat, giving a factual and detailed overview of the events as they had unfolded. In the days and weeks after Bloody Sunday, many protests erupted in solidarity across Britain, with Manchester being a proud part of this. Many trade unions also joined in the condemnation.

We remember those murdered on Bloody Sunday

• Patrick Doherty (31), a factory worker.
• Gerald Donaghey (17), unemployed, previously a delivery hand on a beer lorry.
• John Duddy (17), a factory worker.
• Hugh Gilmour (17), a trainee tyre fitter.
• Michael Kelly (17), a trainee sewing machine mechanic.
• Michael McDaid (20), a barman.
• Kevin McElhinney (17), a supermarket worker.
• Bernard McGuigan (41), a factory worker and handyman.
• Gerard McKinney (35), who managed roller-skating rink.
• William McKinney (27), a printer.
• William Nash (19), a dock worker.
• James Wray (22), previously working in England.
• John Young (17), a shop worker.
• John Johnston (59), a draper.

Further reading in the Morning Star:

MICK CARTY, general secretary of the Connolly Association, introduces the reprinted Irish Democrat and explains how the workers' movement rebelled against the horror of the 1972 massacre.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/mick-carty-feature

The British government was accused of planning to cover up the truth about the 1972 Bloody Sunday killings and other atrocities in Northern Ireland at a memorial service in Derry yesterday
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/british-state-accused-covering-role-bloody-sunday-killings