29.1.2002 to 18.2.2002
Tuesday-Wednesday, 29-30 January, 2002
Wedneday, 30 January, 2002
Sunday, 3 February, 2002
Monday, 4 February, 2002
Tuesday, 5 February, 2002
Wednesday-Thursday, 6-7 February, 2002
Tuesday-Thursday, 12-14 February, 2002
Saturday, 16 February, 2002
Friday-Monday, 15-18 February, 2002
Tuesday-Wednesday, 29-30 January, 2002
Film Review: Sunday
By Fern Lane
As the slow, difficult process of establishing the truth of the events of Bloody Sunday grinds on in Derry's Guildhall, and one week after the television showing of Paul Greengrass's mesmerising drama, Bloody Sunday, Jimmy McGovern's film, Sunday, was given its British television airing by Channel 4 on Monday evening.
McGovern's piece took a very different form to Greengrass's; rather than the very tight 24-hour timeframe of the latter, Sunday covered a period, sometimes in breathless leaps, from 1968 to the conclusion of the Widgery Tribunal, and for that reason offered a greater sense of the political context which Bloody Sunday, for all its brilliance, seemed to lack.
As a piece of film-making, Sunday really took off after we had watched, newly incredulous, newly enraged, as Major General Robert Ford, played by Christopher Eccleston, briefed the press after the killings, smooth and self-assured. Like Tim Piggot-Smith in Bloody Sunday, he embodied the insouciant arrogance of an officer class used to fighting colonial wars and utterly convinced of its own superiority.
In Bloody Sunday, Greengrass succeeded in coaxing some astonishingly subtle and convincing performances from both his actors and from the former British soldiers who played the members of the Parachute Regiment. That they agreed to take part in the film (travelling to Derry, incidentally, in perfect safety and being treated with nothing but courtesy), and allowed themselves to be shown, not as the heroes of popular British imagination, but rather as racist, unthinking and murderous thugs, was curious and slightly unnerving. But their very inability to act - in the traditional sense of the word - gave the film its disturbing sense of authenticity, particularly the presence of Frank Mann, former member of the Scots Guards, in the role of Leiutenant-Colonel Derek Wilford. His veneer of cool, utterly detached professionalism in dealing with the unruly natives became incrementally less convincing as he searched for justification of the actions of the men under his command.
In comparison (and perhaps the comparison is a little unfair) McGovern's Paras felt too highly individualised and somewhat over-acted, their speeches a little too well crafted. McGovern's ability to write exquisitely structured, almost poetic dialogue was misplaced here. Your average British squaddie rarely speaks in grammatically perfect, complete sentences, particularly in moments of extreme tension.
In an interview about his role in Bloody Sunday, Frank Mann said that although still a staunch defender of the British Army and rather sympathetic to Wilford, he took part in Greengrass's film out of a sense that Bloody Sunday was a "cock-up" on the part of the army which needed "sorting out". Mann, who as a soldier spent three years in the Six Counties, said: "You've got to remember that the Parachute Regiment had been on a very long tour in Northern Ireland, almost 18 months. They were about to go home. A situation developed whereby the soldiers were so psyched up that it was almost inevitable that they were going to cross the line. I think that's what happened. As I understand it, there was a real element of wind-up that came all the way from Downing Street. The message was: sort this out.
"If the wind-up has been sufficient and some of the guys get out of hand, it isn't their fault is it? It's a bit like if you say to a bunch of kids, 'Here's some really powerful motorbikes. When you've finished your beers, go and have some fun on them.' When the shit really hits the fan, to pass the buck down and down and down so that you end up saying to the soldiers, 'We think you might have committed murder' - that's ridiculous. Paul Greengrass and I differ about this. But I don't think it's right."
In the week when it was revealed that former British soldiers who took part in the Malvinas conflict and who have since committed suicide now outnumber those who were actually killed in action, Mann's psychological insights, together with Bloody Sunday itself, illustrated what the British Army can and does do to its members. Unlike McGovern, Greengrass's Paras were merely uniforms, virtually indistinguishable from one another, both in character and appearance, dehumanised, stripped of their individuality and morality but stretched to their tensile limit. This process enables them in turn to dehumanise those identified as the enemy and thus fire without compunction into a terrified, unarmed and fleeing crowd who they see not as individual human beings but as an undifferentiated mass of lesser creatures. The Derry people are, as one tells another who appears to be vacillating, "all trouble makers, mate."
Where McGovern absolutely excelled, however, was in his portrayal of the unbearable pain of the families, much of it, one suspects, still not fully articulated even after all this time. John Young's mother, her serene, beautiful face frozen in grief - and fear for her surviving children - was outstandingly played by Brid Brennan. Ciaran McMenamin's breakdown as Leo Young at his brother's funeral was both difficult and moving to watch.
McGovern is also a master of tiny, seemingly insignificant detail used to devastating emotional effect; the flapping sole of John Young's shoe; bored, uninterested RUC officers nonchalantly smoking outside the Altnagelvin hospital morgue; Alex Nash having to ask the Special Branch man interrogating him in his hospital bed to get out of the way so that he could see his son's funeral on television; the army recruitment advertisement on the television in a Derry at the very moment that that army is engaged in the slaughter of civilians.
After the film, Channel 4 conducted a studio debate with an invited audience and a panel. The panel consisted, variously, of Mark Durkan, Michael Kelly, Eamon McCann, Anthony Farrar-Hockley (who seemed to have come disguised as Toad of Toad Hall), Kathryn Johnston (author, together with her husband Liam Clarke, of the humorous work Martin McGuinness: From Guns to Government), an academic Niall O Dochartaigh and unionist Willie Frazer, who complained about the cost of the Saville inquiry.
The British members of the audience, the - wait for it - 'neutrals', appeared to be in a mild state of shock and offered very few coherent opinions either about the film or the events themselves, apart from venturing that it was "a bit anti-British". For a population raised on Andy McNabb et al and accustomed to viewing the Paras as heroes, accepting them as murderous psychopaths requires a difficult and huge intellectual and emotional leap. They will perhaps have been helped on their way by the bizarre utterings of Farrar-Hockley, who played the role of the bumbling, ignorant, upper-class military type to perfection.
As for those unionists and British conservatives currently complaining loudly about the cost of the Saville inquiry, they will no doubt remain characteristically sullen and unmoved by McGovern's drama (that is, if they bothered to watch it). But every time they complain they ought to be reminded of the untold, numberless billions which have been wasted by successive British governments since partition fighting a dirty, unjust and ignominious war and to support a unionist regime so vile and sectarian that it finally collapsed under the weight of its own wilful, criminal incompetence and dismal political corruption. Just think of all the schools and hospitals that could have been built with that money.
As both these excellent films demonstrate, the cost of the Saville inquiry is one of the very few examples in the Six Counties of British money well and honourably spent.
Tuesday-Wednesday, 29-30 January, 2002
Analysis: Campbell's Bloody Sunday bigotry
Derry DUP MP Gregory Campbell wrote in The Irish Times on 30 January, the 30th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday massacre, that "we are expected to believe that (the IRA) suddenly took rest and recuperation" on Bloody Sunday. The actual evidence suggests that two members of the Official IRA, reacting impulsively to the British Army's firing on unarmed civilians, fired a minimal amount of ineffective shots that had no effect on the massacre that was already in train.
The tenor of Campbell's piece reveals a complete inability to recognise the state's role in gunning down unarmed civilians. Is Gregory Campbell so dismissive of the legal rights and the pain of the victims and their relatives, because they are nationalists that his mind shuts down?
Were Gregory Campbell to take a lead as a public representative to call the authorities to account, he would be sending out a message to nationalists that his political opposition to their views does not imply wholesale disregard for their existence. It would also give positive leadership to his followers on the nature of citizenship.
Campbell implies throughout his piece that if justice is done, loyalists will be resentful. But all the victims are asking is that the culpability of the state is acknowledged and the line of political and military command resulting in the unwarranted killing of innocent civilians be revealed.
Campbell reveals a mindset where the rights of one section of the population count for nothing, while he attempts to whip the other section into a semi permanent frenzy of irrational resentment and fear.
It is significant that Campbell's leader, the Reverend Ian Paisley, has not made a single statement condemning the current campaign of violent attacks, up to and including assassination, against Catholics. Equally so is the failure of his ministers, Robinson and Dodds, to attend the recent ICTU protest against sectarian killings and threats against Catholic workers. If Gregory Campbell is afraid of the truth then he is afraid of his own shadow, and that unfortunately sums of the essence of the problem for unionism.
For his part, British Secretary of State John Reid spoke on the anniversary of drawing a line in the past. That line can only be drawn under Bloody Sunday when the British government, of which he is part, admits its murderous role in Derry that day.
A brief history of Bloody Sunday
On January 30, 1972 - 30 years ago today - British soldiers opened fire on a civil rights demonstration in Derry. Thirteen protestors were killed.
Those who died were: Bernard McGuigan (41), Gerard V. Donaghy (17), Hugh P. Gilmore (17), John F. Duddy (17), James Mc Kinney (34), James J. Wray (22), John P. Young (17), Kevin McElhinney (17), Michael G. Kelly (17), Michael M. McDaid (20), Patrick J. Doherty (31), William A. McKinney (27), William N. Nash (19).
John Johnston (59) died later as a result of injuries received.
The following is a brief history of Bloody Sunday, with background and subsequent reaction, taken from the extensive website of the Bloody Sunday Trust at http://bloodysundaytrust.org
BACKGROUND TO BLOODY SUNDAY
The Government of Ireland Act (1920) created Northern Ireland (N.I.) by dividing the 6 north-eastern counties of Ireland from the other 26 counties. These 6 counties, Fermanagh, Antrim, Tyrone, Derry, Armagh and Down, had a majority of Unionists. The other 26 counties, and Ireland as a whole, had a Nationalist/Republican majority and had supported Sinn Fein in its attempts to establish an independent Ireland.
The northern Unionists refused to live in an Ireland that would be controlled by Nationalists/Republicans. As a result of this the British Government created Northern Ireland. One third of the population of Northern Ireland were Nationalists/Republicans, who did not want to be divided from the rest of Ireland.
Throughout its history NI was unstable. Unionists, fearing attack from the Irish Republic and their Nationalist neighbours, would not share power with Nationalists and gerrymandered electoral boundaries in areas in which Nationalists were in the majority to ensure that Nationalists were denied power.
Nationalists resented being governed by the Unionists and saw little hope in elections, because they were unable to win power. The Unionist party could not be defeated by the Nationalist party because when NI was created it was designed to always have a Unionist majority.
The state of NI was attacked by militant Republicans - the IRA, in the 1920's, 1930's, 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. Between 1956 - 1962 the IRA had attacked NI but in 1962 they stopped because they had no support from Nationalists living there.
It seemed in the 1960's that the possibility of a settlement might exist. Sean Lemass, the Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) met Terence O'Neill, the Prime Minister of N.I, to discuss improving relations. This enraged some Loyalist extremists and the UVF became active again in 1966.
But within the Nationalist community, while concern about the border was decreasing, there was increasing anger about discrimination in jobs, housing and voting rights.
This led to the formation of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association on the 1st February 1967. The NICRA took to the streets to demand their aims, which were:
disbanding the RUC
On 5th Oct 1968, in Derry City, the worlds media witnessed civil rights demonstrators being attacked by the police. This turned the Civil Rights Movement into a mass movement.
In November 1968, in response to the Civil Rights campaign, Terrence O'Neill announced the following Reform Package.
Special powers act to be reformed
These reforms angered Unionists who opposed any change and failed to satisfy Nationalists, who wanted more changes. Terence O'Neill was in trouble.
In Jan 1969 a civil rights march from Belfast to Derry took place. On the last day the march was attacked by loyalists twice before reaching Derry. That night rioting took place. Relations between Derry's Nationalists, the police and government got steadily worse. On 12th August 1969, during the annual Unionist Apprentice Boys parade in Derry, violence erupted.
As the parade passed the edge of the Bogside stones were thrown. Police responded by driving the Nationalists into the Bogside but when they tried to follow them into the area they were stopped. Petrol bombs, stones and bottles were used by the residents to stop the police from entering. After 2 days the police, exhausted and demoralized, were replaced by British Soldiers. The rioting ended in Derry when it became clear that the soldiers wouldn't try to enter the Bogside.
The violence in Derry ended but in Belfast it continued into the next day, with 6 people being killed, 150 homes burnt and 3,500 families fleeing their homes. On 15th August British soldiers were on the streets of Belfast.
Violence continued and the IRA, who had been all but extinct in Aug 1969, became more involved. In Belfast clashes between Nationalists and Unionists continued and in July 1970, following one of these clashes, the Army sealed off the Lower Falls area for 2 days.
As violence increased the Stormont government came under increasing pressure to clamp down on the IRA, and on 9th August 1971 internment was introduced.
Across NI 342 men were arrested and imprisoned without trial. The reaction of the Nationalist community was furious.This anger was reinforced when news of the treatment of the internees, the "hooded men" became known. This anger took the form of increased support for the IRA. It was also expressed in a series of protest marches organized by NICRA.
One of the protests took place in Derry on the 30th Jan 1972, the day that is now known as Bloody Sunday.
EVENTS OF THE DAY
As thousands of Civil Rights marchers set off from the Bishops Field in Creggan just before 3 o'clock the mood was upbeat. The sun was shining, the air was crisp and the atmosphere was akin to a carnival. The march had been banned by the Stormont government but there was no sense of fear as the marchers, singing and chanting, wound their way down from Creggan and through the Brandywell and Bogside. It was common knowledge that the IRA had withdrawn from the Bogside.
As the march reached the Army barricade at William St. the great bulk of protesters followed the platform party on a lorry. A minor confrontation occurred at this barricade but by the standards of Derry in 1972 it was low key and as 4.00pm. approached it was petering out.
At 3.55pm., away from the riot at the bottom of William St., Paratroopers opened fire. 5 shots were fired from a derelict building on William St. 2 men, 59 year old John Johnston and 15 year old Damien Donaghy, were hit.
At approximately 4.07pm. the order was given for the 1st Battalion the Parachute Regiment to begin an " arrest " operation. 3 minutes later soldiers of the Support Company began firing. By 4.40pm. the firing had ceased.
As the Paras advanced 2 people, 18 year old Alana Burke and 53 year old Patrick Campbell were hit by military vehicles. Rubber bullets were initially fired and then the unmistakable sound of live rounds was heard. 17 year old Jackie Duddy lay dying and Margaret Deery, Micheal Bridge, Micheal Bradley and Patrick McDaid had been wounded.
As people fled for safety the shooting continued. Hugh Gilmore was murdered as he sought safety in the Rossville Flats. Paddy Doherty was murdered as he tried to crawl to safety and Barney McGuigan, hearing the dying man's cries, was murdered as he attempted to go to his aid.
Kevin McElhinney was shot as he tried to crawl to safety in the Rossville Flats. Micheal Kelly fell at the rubble barricade, as did John Young, William Nash and Micheal McDaid. Three of these young men may have been shot from Derry's walls by British Army snipers and Alexander Nash, the father of William, was wounded as he went to his son's aid.
As people sheltered in Glenfada Park, away from the carnage on Rossville Street, they were unaware that 4 Paras were approaching. When these soldiers came into view the crowd attempted to escape. Joe Friel, Daniel Gillespie, P. O'Donnell and Joe Mahon were wounded.
Jim Wray, wounded and unable to move, lay just yards from his grandparents home. A Para murdered him as he lay wounded and defenceless. Gerard Donaghy, Gerard McKinney and William McKinney were killed as they sought to escape the murderous advance.
In the immediate aftermath of Bloody Sunday the British Army claimed that they had come under sustained attack from gunmen and bombers. Not one soldier was treated for injuries received on Bloody Sunday. No weapons or explosives were seized by the military save for 4 nail bombs that were planted on Gerard Donaghy by the authorities.
REACTION TO EVENTS
National and international reaction to Bloody Sunday, which included worldwide protests led to a clash between the Stormont government and Westminster.
Brian Faulkner, a hardline Unionist who had become the Prime Minister of N.I. in March 1971, wanted even stronger security measures.
The British PM Edward Heath demanded complete British control of security, law and order and the judiciary:
Widgery Inquiry launched. The English Lord Chief Justice, Lord Widgery, was appointed to investigate the events of Bloody Sunday
Before announcing the inquiry the English PM, Edward Heath, met Lord Widgery and told him it must be quick and that a military and propaganda war was being fought in NI. The Nationalist community was unaware of this meeting and unaware of what Lord Widgery decided at this meeting.
Lord Widgery decided the inquiry should:
Take as little time as possible.
Many people in Derry were angry that a British judge had been appointed to investigate the actions of the British Army. Some advised that the Inquiry should be boycotted but the majority of people decided to attend. As a result the people of Derry co-operated with the Inquiry but they were amazed at the results of the investigation.
THE CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE
For the people of Derry, particularly the relatives and wounded, the tragedy of Bloody Sunday was compounded by the obscenity of Widgery.
The Widgery Tribunal was regarded within Derry with contempt but it was the "Official" account of Bloody Sunday. This account, however, was never accepted by the people of Derry and every year since 1972 a march has taken place in the city to commemorate those killed and wounded as they marched for Civil Rights.
In 1992 members of the relatives, wounded and their supporters came together to establish the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign, a non-political organization committed to securing Truth and Justice.
A personal recollection of Bloody Sunday
By Paul Harkin, IAUC Member in Chicago
http://www.iauc.org/harkin.htm
Written on February 3, 2002, the 30th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Ireland, where 14 innocent civilians were murdered by British Paratroopers while attending a civil rights march.
A Chara,
Today in my home town of Derry thousands of people attended the thirtieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday. As I sat in my home here in Chicago recounting the events of that day in my mind and wondering how I could properly commemorate it, it struck me that perhaps I could recount that memory to you.
My family lived three miles outside of Derry City in the townland of Drumahoe. It was a family custom to attend all Civil Rights demonstrations. We were a Catholic family living in a predominately Protestant neighborhood, and so we were very much aware of the discrimination against the predominantly Nationalist Irish Catholics. By peacefully attending these demonstrations we felt that we were doing our part in helping to develop a new Ireland free from discrimination and hatred.
At the dinner table it was agreed that we would leave at 1:30 pm in the family car. It was a pleasant enough day and I went for a walk with my younger brother along the banks of the River Faughan, which divided my Fathers small farm from the local English gentry estate. Time passed quickly and before I knew it was passed the designated time. I rushed home only to find that my mother and older members of my family had left leaving my father to mind the children. I was so disappointed, but still determined not to miss the march, I headed off on my own to walk the two miles to the nearest bus route to the city.
Altnagalvin was where I could catch the bus and it was here, built on the outskirts of Derry City, that Altnagalvin Hospital stood. The regular bus route carried outpatients, hospital staff and visitors to and from the hospital. As I waited for the next bus I recall a flow of ambulances and military vehicles travailing back and forth, but of course my naivety did not allow me to make any connection between this and the march that I was attempting to attend. The bus came and I was to be its only passenger all the way to Derry's inner city, Diamond Square, where stands a memorial to British soldiers killed in action. Little did I know that their memory had already been sullied by the actions of their comrades in the streets of Derry's Bogside that day. As I crossed the square I was struck by the eerie silence.
The Diamond was inside the British controlled Derry walls and this area should have been thronging with British soldiers and RUC protecting the city from "The Bogside Fenian Scum" who dared protest their dominance. I passed through the ancient twenty foot thick city walls into the top of the Bogside's Waterloo Street, from here I could cross a kind of bridge or gangway which led me to the Rossville Street flats. The land leading from the City walls fell away at a very steep slope making the walls easy to defend from their ancient, and not so ancient enemies, thus when I crossed the bridge I would now be on the fifth floor of the ten story blocks of flats.
From here, a balcony linked the two blocks of flats and it was on this level in the furthest away block that my father's mother, my Granny Harkin lived in number 8 Mura Place. That was the family meeting place and from this day forth, it was to become my home away from home. I knew that from here I would either find my family or find out where they were. As I walked towards Grannies wee flat I looked out to my right towards the empty parking lot below. Few people in the flats could afford cars so an empty parking lot was not unusual, but today it should have been full of people going too and from the “big march." The balcony should have been filled with laughing or even crying children or mothers in house slippers shearing gossip as they monitored their off spring, but even the air was still and silent. As I stared into the parking lot I noticed pools of deep red blood, in the center of which I could see a mound of what appeared to be raw meat.
The Blood come from the door of the flats. I moved further towards my Grannies flat. Now all of a sudden there seemed to be blood everywhere. I should have turned right, towards the last block of flats but instead I followed the blood down the stairs, all five flights to the lobby. There was blood everywhere. I could feel the cold sweat pouring down my back. I knew now that something horrific had just happened. Where were all the people? Why is there not a march? The silence, the fear in the air. I pushed open the doors at the bottom of the stairs leading to Rossville Street and there lay all the answers. Another mound of raw flesh, blood, intestines and more bloody bloody blood. Bloody Sunday had arrived, we did not know that it would come but it was here now and we would have to deal with it even if it took thirty years or more. That was the mood that prevailed.
An old woman scurried through the door way past me. She was small, frail, dressed all in black. Her pale, wrinkled hand clasped the black woolen knit shawl over her head. The starched white bed linen that she held in her other hand was in stark contrast to her dark dress. She fell to her knees along side the remains of the young man and gently cast the sheet. The air caught it and allowed it to drift gracefully over the mass of blood. I knelt beside her. Almost magically she produced a pair of rosary beads and began to pray. I think I was in a state of shock because I wanted to talk to her but I could not speak. She was the first and only person that I had seen since I got off that bus. The white sheet was now red. The woman got up and started to move away then she turned to me and said . "Go home son or they will shoot you."
Then she was gone and I was alone again. I stood up and looked towards the Rossville Street barricades. I could see more trails of blood everywhere. I wanted to move towards it and as I did a loud squeal came from the flats above me which quickly brought me to my senses. "Get inside young fella or you will be killed." A terrible fear came over me and I think crawled back to the doors. Hurrying to my Grannies flat I banged the door franticly. Calls of "who is it "? came from a familiar but nervous voice inside. I quickly answered and was soon dragged inside. My granny was one of the few people who had a phone in the flats so my father had already informed them that I had made my own way to the march. I had already been pronounced dead by my mother and had been prayed for by all present. There was a moment of joy followed by the terrible fear of what might happen next. The fear was followed by anguish. We buried our dead. Then came the terrible anger.
I later discovered that the body remains that I found at the door of the Rossville flats were those of Hugh Gilmore. As it turned out, Hugh was the only one of the people killed that day, that I knew personally. We went to school together.
Security force members to testify to Saville
By Eamonn MacDermott, Sunday Business Post, Dublin, Ireland
Next week the Bloody Sunday Inquiry will begin to hear from the first members of the security forces to testify.
Several members of the RUC will give evidence to Lord Saville's Inquiry in Derry's Guildhall, among them Frank Lagan who was the Chief Superintendent in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday.
In his statement to the Inquiry the former RUC chief tells how he was opposed to stopping the march and instead favoured allowing it to proceed to the Guildhall and then photographing and prosecuting those taking part at a later date.
He said in his statement: "I felt that by allowing the marchers to enter the Guildhall Square the police and army could identify many of the marchers by sight and through using photographs they could be prosecuted later.
"This would have had the added benefit of minimising the risk of confrontation between the marchers and the security forces."
Lagan also said he believed that the senior British army officer in Derry, Brigadier Mac-Lellan concurred with his decision and would report accordingly to his superiors.
But Lagan's advice was rejected and subsequently he was told, `the march was to be kept within the Bogside and Creggan in a military controlled operation'.
Frank Lagan stated: "I was never told why our joint advice was rejected. This was usual in police circles at that time and I just accepted the decision."
The former RUC chief is also expected to tell the Inquiry about relaying information to General Robert Ford, the senior British army officer in Derry on Bloody Sunday, January 30, 1972 and the Commander of Land Forces that he had heard from the organisers of the march, The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) that they had decided not to try and force their way to the Guildhall but would turn down Rossville Street.
In his statement he said: "I went and saw Brigadier Mac-Lellan and General Ford standing next to each other . . . I approached them and told them about the NICRA information.
"Neither Brigadier MacLellan nor General Ford responded. General Ford immediately turned away from me and Brigadier Mac-Lellan quickly followed."
He added: "I must say I was very disappointed by the lack of response. I thought they would have been delighted to hear that the confrontation at the William Street barrier would be averted."
Lagan remained at the British army headquarters during the events of Bloody Sunday and he is expected to tell the Inquiry how he asked Brigadier MacLellan to wait before sending the paratroopers in until marchers and rioters had become fully separated.
In his statement Lagan said that Brigadier MacLellan came back into the room where he was and said: "I'm sorry, the paras have gone in."
When Chief Superintendent Lagan testified to the original inquiry into Bloody Sunday chaired by the then British Lord Chief Justice Widgery it became clear that the British army did not trust him because of his religion; Lagan is a Catholic.
In a memo dated March 14 1972, the day after Lagan had testified to Widgery, Brigadier MacLellan wrote to General Ford: "As you well know Lagan's sympathies lie entirely with the Catholic community.
"His proposal that the march should be allowed to proceed was patently a gesture to maintain his position with his own people."
Later in the same memo Brigadier MacLellan declared: "When considering Lagan's evidence it must be remembered that he is a RC who was brought up in Derry.
"He and his family still live by choice west of the Foyle. His sympathies, not unnaturally, lie entirely with the Catholic community and he makes no secret of his contempt for Stormont policies."
Brigadier MacLellan goes on to accuse the RUC chief of giving "misleading and inaccurate evidence" and of "a deliberate distortion of the truth".
The British army officer's memo concluded: "I personally believe him to be a moderate and sincere man but because of the pressures which are upon him I can no longer give him my complete trust.
"The ideal solution would be for Lagan to resign."
Copyright © 2002 Sunday Business Post, Ireland
40,000 march for Bloody Sunday 'truth, justice, healing'
Ignoring the freezing rain and bitter wind on Sunday, some 40,000 people from all over Ireland and the rest of the world retraced the steps of the thousands who marched against internment and for civil rights in January 1972, winding their way down from Creggan to Free Derry Corner.
Like that day 30 years ago, the mood up at the Creggan shops, despite the atrocious weather, was one of good-natured optimism. Unlike that day, it did not end in slaughter; instead it was the greatest public affirmation yet of what the people of the city have always known; that those murdered by the Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday were innocent.
At Free Derry Corner the huge rally was addressed by Geraldine Doherty, niece of Gerald Donaghy who was just 17 years old when he was killed, Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly, Alex Attwood of the SDLP and veteran civil rights campaigner Eamon McCann.
Gerry Kelly told the rally that Bloody Sunday was the "line in the sand" which was drawn after a series of other incidents when nationalists were savagely attacked and murdered by the forces of the British state.
"My generation was probably really the first television generation" he said. "I witnessed the events in Derry in October 1968 on television; I witnessed the attacks at Burntollet Bridge. In August 1969 I came through Derry just after the onslaught on the Bogside by loyalists, the RUC and B-Specials. It then spread to Belfast. State forces fired indiscriminately into Catholic from armoured cars. I remember the Falls curfew in 1970 and the internment raids and deaths of August 1971. Like Bishop Daly, another brave priest, Father Mullan, went to the aid of a wounded man on the edge of Ballymurphy where I was brought up. Father Mullan was shot dead - as were many others in the area."
He continued; "The reason I recount this is because I think it is important to realise that Bloody Sunday was not an isolated incident or action. But it was a line in the sand, not just for me but arguably for a whole generation of youth. I have heard innumerable commentators over the years saying that Bloody Sunday was a recruiting sergeant for the IRA as if that was the only problem with it - not the fact that 13 innocent unarmed civilians were massacred that day. I joined the IRA within days, as did many others."
"I was a proud IRA man, but to simply describe those events as a recruiting sergeant for the IRA is to grossly underestimate the psychological effect of Bloody Sunday. It was in fact a massacre waiting to happen. During the early seventies the Paras were the British government's military cutting edge. Between internment in August 1971 and the following August the British army killed 89 people; the Paras were responsible for killing 40 of these people. Since 1969, the British army has killed 339 people, the overwhelming majority of them nationalists."
The British government not only permitted their troops to kill innocent civilians, he said, they actively encouraged them to do so. "And these troops did so in the clear knowledge that they had immunity. They had a licence to kill."
"Let us be clear about this; the violence visited on you 30 years ago was not mindless, was not irrational, was not spontaneous, nor the actions of an individual commander in the British army. The killing of civilians was well thought out. The violence was methodical and was politically approved at the highest level."
Its purpose, he went on, was to terrorise the nationalist and republican population. "It was designed to intimidate us, not only off the streets, but to abandon our quest for civil rights and for national rights. It was aimed at forcing us to stay indoors, to peak from behind curtains, to cover in the face of injustice. That was what the British government did all over its empire and that is what they tried to do here."
Geraldine Doherty told the rally that to the families of those who were killed and wounded, Bloody is not history. "It is real" she said "every day of our lives."
"For us it is the remembrance of a loved one, or the regret of a life forever changed, in the streets we walk down, in the murals we see, in the faces of our friends and neighbours and in the Guildhall where we seek truth and justice. We live with what we have lost."
Ms Doherty spoke in turn about each of the fourteen victims and paid tribute to those who were injured; Alana Burke, Michael Quinn, Joe Friel, Damien Donaghy, Daniel Gillespie, Michael Bridge, Patrick O'Donnell, Michael Bradley, Joe Mahon, Patsy McDaid and Danny McGowan.
"Their courage and determination to continue to strive for the truth and justice are a source of strength to us all" she said. "We celebrate the memory of Alexander Nash, Patrick Campbell and Peggy Deery who were wounded on Bloody Sunday and have since died. It is our deepest regret that they did not live to see this campaign through to its conclusion".
She spoke about the families' hopes for the Saville inquiry, but added that it was difficult to maintain that hope when the inquiry is continually undermined, citing in particular the granting of anonymity to former members of the Parachute Regiment and the decision of the High Court that they can give their evidence in London rather than in Derry.
"It appears that efforts are being made to have the families withdraw their support for the inquiry and cause it to collapse." She said. "The Ministry of Defence supplies the security assessments on which decisions on venues are taken, but they cannot provide this in an impartial manner when they are responsible for the soldiers whose actions caused the deaths of so many. They continually refuse to acknowledge their role in Bloody Sunday."
And referring to those amongst Unionists and within the British conservative party and media who have continually criticised the cost of the inquiry, she said:
"To those who so strenuously oppose the inquiry we say; what happened here was different. Innocent people were murdered by the state - the state to which our critics swear allegiance - and yet no criminal investigation every too place. Yes, we acknowledge the loss and pain felt by the families of all victims of the conflict. We ask that you acknowledge ours and recognise the face that this inquiry would not be necessary had the British government at the highest level told the truth 30 years ago and acknowledged the innocence of our loved ones."
"Secretary of State John Reid says that we have to draw a line under the past. We have campaigned for many years for a new inquiry that will help us to do that. But the responsibility also lies with the British government to ensure that we can achieve truth, justice and healing."
Were Paras behind Bloody Sunday banner?
By Eamonn Houston, Derry Journal
A SICK banner unfurled on Derry's Walls minutes before the Bloody Sunday commemoration procession reached the Bogside on Sunday may have been the work of off-duty British soldiers perhaps even Paratroopers, it has been claimed. Police were coming under pressure last night to explain how a huge banner daubed with the words 'Paras 14 Paddys 0' was draped from the Walls when it is claimed that police officers backed up with Army personnel were monitoring the march.
However, a PSNI spokesman said no complaints had been received about the banner and that they had no knowledge of it. The British Army have branded allegations that soldiers were involved as "ludicrous". Up to 40, 000 people marched on Sunday to demand justice for the relatives of the Bloody Sunday dead and injured. The procession was halted in the Brandywell by stewards to ensure the massive crowd did not see the banner before it was removed.
John Kelly, whose brother Michael was shot dead near the rubble barricade on Rossville Street as members of 1 Para opened fire on Bloody Sunday, said the involvement of the Parachute Regiment was his first suspicion. "I would not be surprised if serving soldiers or even members of 3 Para who are currently in Ballykelly were behind this. The use of the term 'Paddys' suggests some sort of British involvement. It would be in the interests of the soldiers to antagonise the thousands of people who attended the march and create trouble.
"Police should examine footage from the CCTV camera positioned on the Walls to find out exactly who was responsible for this. Tramping on graves "Whoever is responsible should be ashamed of themselves. Our relatives were innocent and these people are tramping on their graves," Mr. Kelly said. Sinn Féin Deputy Mayor Peter Anderson has condemned the attempt to drape the offensive banner from the Derry Walls. Colr. Anderson said: "It is disgusting that anyone would seek to inflame passions in Derry on the 30th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
"Given the language used and the positioning of this disgusting banner the question needs to be asked, were British soldiers involved? "It is no coincidence that the 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment is based only 15 miles from Derry and they are the only people I can think of who could have been responsible for this appalling act." Sunday's march was thought to be the largest ever in the city. Several hundred people were already in the Bogside when the incident happened.
In a separate development, similar grafitti has appeared on a wall in Hawkin Street in the Fountain area of the city centre. 'God Bless the Paras' has also been sprayed onto a wall in the area. John Kelly said the culprits had effectively trampled on the graves of the innocent dead. But a spokesperson at British Army headquarters in Lisburn claimed that soldiers were not behind the stunt on Derry's walls. "These allegations are absolutely ludicrous. The Paras based at Ballykelly are not entitled to be off-duty. They have not been deployed in Londonderry. There is absolutely no way that Paras were in Londonderry on Sunday."
Copyright © 2002 Derry Journal, Ireland
Wednesday-Thursday, 6-7 February, 2002
Film-maker speaks on Bloody Sunday project
The renewed interest of the wider world in the Bloody Sunday issue, aroused partly by the ongoing Saville Inquiry and by the recent showing of both Jimmy McGovern's 'Sunday' and Paul Greengrass' 'Bloody Sunday', was evident at all the events held over last weekend's 30th anniversary commemorations, but most particularly at the packed out Gasyard Centre on Saturday afternoon.
Dave Duggan chaired 'Writing Wrongs - Sunday', a public forum which explored the making of the McGovern's film. The panel included Maura Young, around whose family's story the film's narrative is constructed, co-producers Stephen Gargan, Jim Keys of Gaslight Production and Gub Neal of Box TV, and Jimmy McGovern himself.
Stephen Gargan began by explaining how he and co-producer Jim Keys began to formulate the idea of making a film of Bloody Sunday, using McGovern's docu-drama 'Hillsborough' as a model. McGovern was invited, informally, to the Bloody Sunday weekend in 1998, when the tentative idea that he should write the script was put to him.
Although initially reluctant, when McGovern agreed he and the producers then set about a careful process of consultation with the families of those killed and with the surviving wounded. McGovern said that for him "the main thing was that we got the process right. I think it's wrong just to come over here and pick people's brains, explore people's hearts and then piss off. So we were all determined that we would get the process right.
"I'm proud of the film, but I'm even more proud of the process we went through to get the film. It was a case of going into people's houses - and it was great for me because I have a stammer, and I'd walk into people's houses and just start stammering, and Irish people would just give me everything. I just listened and listened and then I went away and wrote the story."
Maura Young told the audience that the reason the families had co-operated so fully with the making of the film was because they needed to have their story told. "It's easy to sit and read," she said "but when somebody puts it on film as well as Jimmy and all of them have, it brings it a bit more closer to home."
During the question and answer session, McGovern was asked whether making the film had affected his own sense of national identity. He said that travelling to and from Derry whilst researching, writing had given him "a profound insight".
"As I was coming over here I was thinking it's so unfair; the Irish are patriotic and it's easy to be patriotic if you've been victimised and shat upon for thousands of years. But when you are a son of the imperial power, how difficult is it to be patriotic then?
"And yet I found that I loved my country. So that made me think; I'm here amongst Irish people and we have slaughtered, murdered Irish people and yet I love my country. Why? Then I realised it's because my wife and kids are there, all my family are there, all my friends, everything I value is in England. So I instinctively love my country. And that made me think, the question I must ask is; how can my country make itself worthy of my love? Then you demand great things of your country - truth and justice overwhelmingly. I thought that's what patriotism is all about - it's being eternally vigilant and critical of your own country, especially if it's and imperial power with all that history behind it. That was a revelation to me. I would never have got that without coming over to Ireland for four years."
Speaking afterwards, co-producer Stephen Gargan spoke more about the way in which McGovern had come to write the story of Bloody Sunday and about the close involvement in the families. It was, he says, an almost "organic" process.
As part of the Gasyard Feile, he says he wanted Jimmy to "actually come and talk about his writing, and to talk about his depiction of Irish characters in things like Cracker. His characters always seemed to have a little more depth than your average character.
"So I met him in Belfast and we just started to talk about Hillsborough and the notion of doing something on Bloody Sunday emerged because the Hillsborough experience was really about engaging with the relatives' story, speaking to the relatives, and then the story emerged out of that.
"Then we invited him to Derry for the commemorative weekend in 1998. At that weekend it started coming a bit more into focus." During this process, both he and McGovern, says Stephen, learned an incredible amount. "You think you know something," he says, "but when you actually speak to people who have experienced particular aspects of what happened on the day, it's only than that you really start to assemble the picture - like in a sense what Saville is doing."
"When Jimmy came in he was more focused on the notion that individual soldiers or the Parachute Regiment was the problem. He came away realising that, certainly the soldiers pulled the trigger and they have to be accountable for their actions, but ultimately they were just a tool of the British government and by the end of the process he was more firmly of the belief that the responsibility should be put at the door of Number Ten Downing Street rather than with the Parachute Regiment."
In respect of the soldiers themselves, one thing the filmmakers also wanted to address, says Gargan was "the fascination for a lot of people: who are these people? What's the mindset of an individual that he can come into an area and do what he does? That's a very interesting story in itself, another aspect of Bloody Sunday."
Although the researchers did not speak to any of the Parachute Regiment members involved with the Saville inquiry, they did speak to members of the first and second battalion of the Paras and members of other regiments, like the Royal Green Jackets.
"That research was very good in terms of getting some insight to the mindset," says Stephen, particularly "the deep racism, the regimental rivalry and how the Paras see other regiments - they call them 'crap hats'. When people say that Bloody Sunday was chaotic, that it was confusing and the Paras didn't really know what was going on, well it was very important to nail that nonsense really, because they are a crack, elite regiment who were put together for a very particular job. They're killers, executioners; they're not a police service. They were brought from Belfast for a very particular job and they were busted out again the next day. The idea that they came into Derry and let's say for argument's sake that there were some shots fired at them, that they were somehow confused - it's a nonsense."
Stephen points out the irony that the Rossville area has now been refurbished but the area of Manchester where the killing scenes were shot are still at the same level of deprivation as they were in the 1970s. "These people in England are living in worse conditions, but they were brilliant."
Wednesday-Thursday, 6-7 February, 2002
RUC men to be shielded for Bloody Sunday evidence
Twenty members of the RUC (now PSNI) who were involved in the events of Bloody Sunday will be permitted to hide from public from view when giving evidence to the Saville inquiry into the massacre, according to an inquiry ruling on Thursday.
One of those who will be concealed in Chief Superintendent Brian McVicker, who is currently at the centre of the Omagh bombing investigation controversy.
Lord Saville said the judges had considered that the public should be able to see "how those who give evidence before the inquiry conduct themselves".
The identities of all the men are known, but Lord Saville he claimed that, by granting the screening order, the men's security would be enhanced without undermining public confidence.
Yesterday's ruling came after former Special Branch officer William George Hunter appeared at the inquiry on Monday shielded by a high-sided wooden box.
He had been granted the shielding order in June 2000 when Lord Saville ruled that he faced a "special danger" which overrode the public duty to conduct an open inquiry.
As the first police witness to give evidence he claimed he heard nail bombs and gunfire from a Thompson sub-machine gun, at the start of the march. Newsreel evidence has contradicted his claims, however.
Lawyers representing some of the families said they were disappointed by Lord Saville's ruling, and said the public was being "blindfolded" in what was supposed to be an open and fair public inquiry.
Mr Kieran Rainey said: "The tribunal's blanket grant of screening to RUC/PSNI witnesses may prove to be a spur for similar applications by the soldiers who have been careful to reserve their position on the matter.
"Each decision on anonymity, venue and screening further erodes the open and public nature of the inquiry."
PARAS BEHIND INSULTING BANNER
Meanwhile, it is believed that a banner reading "Paras 14 - Paddy's O" taken from the Derry Walls last weekend may have been put there by off duty British paratroopers stationed in Ballykelly's Shackleton Barracks in County Derry, a few miles from Derry City
According to John Kelly of the Bloody Sunday campaign, whose brother Michael was killed on Bloody Sunday, "the use of the term Paddys suggested some sort of British involvement. It would be in the interests of British soldiers to antagonise the thousands of people attending the march."
The spot were the banner was draped is close to a British Army barracks on Derry's Walls and would be under surveillance from cameras and watchtowers. It appeared as crowds were gathering in the Bogside for the start oof the 40,000 strong commemorative march.
Tuesday-Thursday, 12-14 February, 2002
Bloody Sunday families challenge RUC anonymity
Madden & Finucane Solicitors, who represent the majority of the families of the deceased and wounded on Bloody Sunday, have lodged in the High Court in Belfast an application for Judicial Review of the Tribunal's decision to grant screening to the RUC police witnesses due to give evidence before the Inquiry.
The RUC men have claimed they are at risk of reprisal for the role they played on January 30,. 1972 when 13 nationalist civil rights demonstrators were shot dead in Derry by British soldiers.
Lawyer Ciaran Shiels said: "Our clients are firmly of the view that this screening application for the RUC is a precursor for a similar application by the soldiers who have already been allowed to give their evidence anonymously in Britain.
"All of the identities of the RUC witnesses are known to the public and a number of them have conducted numerous television interviews in the past. Some have even made applications for screening only to inexplicably withdraw their applications recently. The RUC have had two years in order to make their application to the Tribunal and only last week have raised this issue. The responsibility for any delay in the Inquiry hearings as a result of this challenge must be placed clearly at the door of the RUC."
CALLED 'ARMY'
In testimony this week to the Saville Inquiry, an Irish Times journalist told the inquiry this week that he sought out a telephone on Bloody Sunday to call the British army and ask it to stop killing people.
Mr Dick Grogan, who was in Derry on Bloody Sunday, said he was absolutely stunned when he heard the British Army open fire.
"I was in shock. I had to try and find a telephone to contact the office and tell them that something had happened and to telephone the [British] army to ask them to stop firing," he said.
Shorty afterwards, he saw a man standing outside his front door.
"I asked him if he had a phone. He replied that he had and that the army was on the end of the line at that very moment. I went inside his house and picked up the receiver, immediately asking whoever was on the other end of the line to order a ceasefire. The voice at the other end told me that I was, in fact, speaking to the Irish Army in Donegal."
He said he was astonished when Mr Coyle told him the Army was on his phone. He was "once again astounded" when told by the voice at the other end of the line that he was speaking to the Irish Army in Donegal.
BODIES 'DUMPED'
In other evidence, Mrs Kathleen Hutton, who broke down as she recalled the events of Bloody Sunday, said she saw three or four soldiers standing around an armoured truck as if they were guarding it outside the Rossville Flats that day.
Two soldiers picked up the bodies, some of which were still moving.
"They dumped them into the Saracen like lumps of meat going to the abattoir," she said in her statement to the inquiry.
She said she screamed from a window in the flats to a priest below to try to get the bodies, that they were in danger of drowning in their own blood.
"Suddenly the soldiers guarding the Saracen turned on us and shot up at the windows and I remember me and whoever I was with in the flat had to duck.
"The shots didn't hit the window and I got the feeling the soldiers were just firing in our direction to shut us up," she said.
Mrs Hutton, aged 17 at the time, went on the march with two friends and recalled seeing Jackie Duddy lying on the ground in the car park outside Rossville Flats and a man who was administering first aid to him dipping a handkerchief in his blood.
Despite this the army continued to fire, she said, as attempts were made to take him away. She did not see where the fire came from.
She broke down as she was questioned about this incident.
After a brief adjournment, she said: "I spent 30 years trying to forget it and it just all came back when you said it."
Mrs Hutton, whose father, civil rights activist Tommy Carlin, was killed by a bomb in 1970, was also asked if she now recalled seeing soldiers fire shots towards the group around Jackie Duddy.
"I blocked the whole thing out about Jackie Duddy's death until I had to remember it," she said.
HIGH SPIRITS
She said on her way home she passed some soldiers in High Street.
"They looked fairly happy and pleased with themselves as if they had done a job well."
Another witness, Mr Mickey McLaughlin, said he recalled the soldiers in high spirits.
They were smiling and full of adrenaline, he said.
The chairman, Lord Saville, said the inquiry had been "seriously dislocated" as a result of judicial review proceedings in Belfast High Court and it was "with deep regret" that the inquiry's staff were unable to find sufficient witnesses to make it worthwhile to sit again until Monday week.
'The Martin McGuinness Inquiry'
Derry Journal, EditorialEditorial Editorial
NOT A week seems to go by without some tiresome reference to Martin McGuinness’ alleged role and activities on Bloody Sunday.
From the earliest days of the Saville Inquiry, there has been a growing feeling in nationalist circles that the probe has become somewhat unduly focused on the IRA - both Provisionals and Officials.
Since civilian witnesses began testifying in late 2000, a clearly defined pattern has emerged indicating that some people are more interested in uncovering the structure and membership of the IRA in the early 1970s than in discovering what actually happened on Bloody Sunday.
In light of Mr. McGuinness’ decision to provide written testimony to the Inquiry, it is vital that the investigation does not degenerate into “The Martin McGuinness Inquiry”.
What many fail or, indeed, refuse to see is that the Education Minister’s decision to co-operate with the Saville probe is a positive development which, hopefully, can complement efforts to provide a complete picture of what happened in the Bogside on that tragic day thirty years ago. Mr. McGuinness’ admission that he was a leading IRA member in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday isn’t wholly unexpected but, nevertheless, his statement to the Inquiry does herald a watershed in republican strategy.
While it may have taken the Mid-Ulster MP some time to reveal details of his paramilitary role in 1972, his example should encourage others to go before the Inquiry to ensure that the full truth of Bloody Sunday finally comes out.
To the people of Derry, the central issue of Bloody Sunday is a simple one: why did the Paras kill and wound unarmed civilians and who exactly ordered them to do it?
In such circumstances, it is vital that, just as Martin McGuinness has a responsibility to reveal everything he knows about the IRA’s actions on that day, the British military and political establishment, as well as the RUC, co-operate fully with both the Saville Inquiry and the lawyers acting for the relatives.
Copyright © 2002 Derry Journal, Ireland
Friday-Monday, 15-18 February, 2002
Bloody Sunday film wins top prize in Berlin
See also: Feature: Bloody Sunday film review and Bloody Sunday victims hail landmark film
Bloody Sunday film wins award, set for wide release
The film 'Bloody Sunday' has taken the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival yesterday, the Golden Bear.
The film, praised for its "extraordinary authenticity", beat more than 20 films to scoop the top prize at the prestigious festival.
"Both Derry and Berlin understand what it means to be a divided city. This award is a recognition that democracy is based on rights and not sovereignty," director Paul Greengrass said.
Actor James Nesbitt, who plays MP Mr Ivan Cooper in the film, said he was "thrilled" by the award. "I wasn't prepared for how my words were taken apart and every sentence analysed, but whatever flak we got, that's insignificant now," he said.
The film was a competition favourite and its victory came despite the film's television screenings and video release.
The film was joint winner of the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival last month and will be released in cinemas in the US in the autumn.
"It makes things easier, but picking up another bauble won't change us or the film. It's not a film that's going to play in every mall in town," said Tristan Whalley, one of the film's executive producers.
Bloody Sunday received a second award yesterday from an ecumenical jury of the Catholic and Protestant churches. The award recognises films which "sensitise viewers to spiritual human or social values".
"The church award recognises that this was a reconciling project for the two communities," said Don Mullan, whose book Eyewitness Bloody Sunday provided the basis for the film.
"What started as a lonely campaign by them will now be debated worldwide," he said.
Ivan Cooper said the film's success was a fitting tribute to the campaign of Bloody Sunday victims.
"I am delighted that the story of Bloody Sunday will now be seen by audiences across the globe,' he said.
North American rights have been bought for an estimated $1million by film company Paramount Pictures. The deal also includes distribution rights in Australia, Japan, South Africa and Latin America.
Deals to distribute the #3million production throughout Europe have also been agreed.
More than four million people watched the British TV screening of the movie last month -- just days before the 30th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
