6 May 2010 Edition

Resize: A A A Print

Fógraí bháis: John (Johnny) Duddy

John (Johnny) Duddy pictured during the Bloody Sunday commemorative weekend events in January 2009         PHOTO: C. Mc Menamin

John (Johnny) Duddy pictured during the Bloody Sunday commemorative weekend events in January 2009 PHOTO: C. Mc Menamin

Another Bloody Sunday relative passes away  

RELATIVES of those killed and wounded on Bloody Sunday are deeply saddened at the death of John (Johnny) Duddy, who died in the early morning of Monday, May 3rd.
Johnny Duddy was the brother-in-law of John Johnston, the second person shot on Bloody Sunday. John Johnston (59) died of his wounds a few months later, the only person not to die immediately or soon after being shot.
Mr Duddy died at home in Marlborough Street, aged 87. Tony Doherty, speaking on behalf of the Bloody Sunday families and wounded, paid tribute to Mr Duddy.
“Johnny Duddy was a tireless campaigner from the early days of the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign, loyally representing the Johnston family right through until several months before his death. He will be remembered as a serious but at times jovial figure, who brightened up many a gloomy day on the campaign trail.”

CARRYING THE FLAME
Mr Duddy was present on the march in 1972 and in the years since Bloody Sunday he fully represented the Johnston family with pride, carrying the flame for John Johnston until the day he died.
In the months before his death at the age of 87, Mr Duddy wrote a letter to the Bloody Sunday families expressing his feelings about the campaign and the Saville Inquiry.
Part of this letter read:
“I am now 87-years-old and must be one of the oldest alive who went through Bloody Sunday. I would love to be around to see the killers brought to justice. Nothing less. I never spoke at any of the meetings as I felt I had nothing to offer but I would like to see interested people abroad getting all the facts and being shown the diagrams of the shootings and the distances involved.”
Tony Doherty added:
“It’s a terrible injustice to Johnny personally that his death took place possibly just weeks before the release of the Saville Report into Bloody Sunday. He will be fondly remembered and sorely missed by all concerned.”


An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland