Bloody Sunday – The Struggle Continues

18/01/10

As many victims of miscarriages of justice will testify, admissions of guilt by Britain take a long time to come to pass.

For 38 years, the people of Derry have been fighting for such an admission. Ever since 14 civilians were massacred by the British Paratroop Regiment in the city in 1972, the families of dead, the injured and the survivors have been fighting for the British government to acknowledge the truth. The truth being that the British government attempted to crush peaceful civil rights demonstrations by an act of terrorism and mass murder.

Despite the pain and death inflicted by its army on January 31 1972, the British government failed on two counts. Not only did it abjectly failed to crush the struggle for civil rights, democracy and freedom in Ireland, it also failed to make its version of what happened on Bloody Sunday stick. The truth that Bloody Sunday was a massacre is known around the world, to the detriment of the British government's reputation.

What remains to be achieved is the publication of the findings of the Saville Inquiry, which was set up by the British government in 1998. The families deserve at least the semblance of closure that an accurate finding by the Inquiry will bring.

But the brutal truth that the British army taught the people of Ireland on January 31 1972 remains – without national rights there can be no civil rights. Until national independence and unity is achieved the British government will continued to abuse the civil and human rights of Irish citizens and it will attempt to crush any resistance to those abuses.

These are the reasons that people should mobilise to Derry on January 31; for 38 years, nationalist Ireland has been marching in defiance of the British government and its armed forces in that city and this year should be no different.

This month, get to Derry and march in memory of Jackie Duddy, Patrick Doherty, Bernard McGuigan, Hugh Gilmour, Kevin McElhinney, Michael Kelly, John Young, William Nash, Michael McDaid, James Wray, Gerald Donaghy, Gerald McKinney, William McKinney and John Johnston.

Get to Derry and march in support of their families and the survivors.

Get to Derry and demand national independence.

The march will take place on Sunday, January 31, assembling at the Creggan shops at 2.30pm.