BLOODY SUNDAY COMMEMORATION | THE LAST MARCH

The truth has been brought home at last

THE 39th anniversary of Bloody Sunday takes place in an unprecedented atmosphere of celebration marking the successful culmination of a long and arduous campaign for truth and justice. Against all the odds, ordinary people have wrested an outstanding moral and legal victory over a state that murdered peaceful protesters and then told the world lies about them.No more will the lies of the British Establishment, or the whitewash of Widgery, be repeated to excuse the actions of the British Army on the streets of Derry on the January 30th 1972. What we have always known has been acknowledged and recognised: Bloody Sunday was unjustified and unjustifiable.From the lips of the British Prime Minister, the truth has been acknowledged.All those murdered and wounded on Bloody Sunday were innocent. We have always known that. Now the world does as well. All the victims of Bloody Sunday have been exonerated. Their relatives, friends and supporters across the world have been vindicated.For the first time in British legal history, an official inquiry, Widgery, has been consigned to the legal dustbin. The Saville Report, however, is far from perfect.It carries a number of serious flaws and has been accurately described as heavy on innocence and light on guilt. Its treatment of Gerald Donaghey is simply incomprehensible. The report stops short of placing blame for the atrocity at the middle and higher echelons of the British Army and the then British Government. But its core message is inescapable and unavoidable: innocence has been proven and accepted.The truth has been acknowledged.The families and their supporters stood vindicated on the steps of the Guildhall on June 15th 2010.Finally, the lies and whitewash were exposed and the truth shone free. In the words of one campaigner, “We have moved a mountain!”The complete turnaround of the Bloody Sunday story, from darkness into light, will serve as a beacon of hope and inspiration for many other families at home and throughout the world who are currently struggling for truth and justice.The parallels between Bloody Sunday and the Ballymurphy Massacre are manifest.The people of Gaza, among the most beleaguered and demonised in the world, were the first to send congratulations to the people of Derry on June 15th.Just as the jubilant release of the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six in 1989 and 1991 gave inspiration to the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign, oppressed people everywhere will take heart from the ground-breaking culmination of that campaign less than seven months ago.Derry’s stubborn refusal to accept the state’s lies gave rise to the most remarkable justice campaign in modern Irish history, a campaign that reached a climax on June 15th 2010, amid joyous and emotional scenes in Derry’s Guildhall Square. Derided and sneered at for years, told by defeatists to give up any hope of reaching success, the dark and difficult days of campaigning were at last vindicated when the Bloody Sunday families and wounded announced to a waiting world:“The great lie has been laid bare. The truth has been brought home at last.”
Friday 28 January
“Bringing the Truth to Light”: The untold story of the decades-long campaign for truth and justice. A night of discussion, reflection, music and poetry looking at the years of campaigning that culminated in vindication for the Bloody Sunday victims.

Guest speakers to include: Mitchel McLaughlin MLA, Sinn Féin; Paul O’Connor, founding member of the Bloody Sunday Initiative; Patrica Coyle, human rights lawyer and Bloody Sunday campaigner; Jane Winter, human rights campaigner and founding member of the Bloody Sunday Trust (BST); Eamonn McCann, Bloody Sunday campaigner and Chair of BST; Don Mullan, author and Bloody Sunday campaigner; Geraldine Doherty, founding member of the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign (BSJC) and niece of Gerald Donaghey; John Kelly, founding member of the BSJC and brother of Michael Kelly; Gerry Duddy, founding member of the BSJC and brother of Jackie Duddy; Conal McFeely, founding member of the BST.

Hosted by: Tony Doherty, founding member of the Bloody Sunday Initiative, BSJC, Bloody Sunday Weekend Committee and BST and journalist and commentator Paul McFadden.Venue: Guildhall, 7:30pm. Admission by donation. Bar facilities available.
Saturday 29 January
The Road from Bloody Sunday to Ballymurphy - Searching for the Truth: Tony Doherty, Bloody Sunday Relative, Ballymurphy speaker, speaker from Relatives for Justice. Organised by Ógra Shinn Féin.

Venue: Gasyard Centre, Lecky Road, 11:30am to 1pm.
Ógra Shinn Féin National Conference: Uachtarán Sinn Féin Gerry Adams address. Members of the public welcome.

Venue: Gasyard Centre, Lecky Road, 2pm.

The Crisis, Cutbacks and Communities Under Attack - Making the Case for a New Politics in Ireland: Speakers Pól Ó Callaghan MLA, SDLP; Pearse Doherty TD, Sinn Féin; Roy Garland and other speakers. Organised by Ógra Shinn Féin.

Venue: Gasyard Centre, Lecky Road, 2:30pm.
Saville: The Legacy and International Implications: Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin will host a panel discussion on Saturday 29 January from 2pm to 4pm. The event will be conducted in Irish, and chaired by RnaG journalist Póilín Ní Chiaráin.

Venue: Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, Great James’s Street, 2pm to 4pm.
Weapons of Choice: A dramatic presentation by The Pat Finucane Centre. A Sterling sub-machine gun “stolen” from a UDR base was used to kill 12 people between 1974 and 1980. The Pat Finucane Centre presents a dramatic, multi-media account giving hard evidence of how such high-velocity weapons were allegedly “stolen” or otherwise mysteriously “disappeared” from various British Army, UDR and RUC bases throughout the conflict and used to kill dozens of nationalists and republicans. Those who died included the Miami Showband, teenage boys, building workers from Donegal and many other victims of state collusion in the so-called ‘Murder Triangle’ of mid-Ulster in the 1970s.Using hitherto “Top Secret” documents, the PFC shows the British Government’s response was cover-up and lies while judges made ‘allowances’ for the proven involvement of RUC officers in murder.

Venue: Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, Great James Street, 4:30pm to 5:30pm.
Bloody Sunday Memorial Mass: All welcome.

Venue:.St Mary’s, Creggan, 6:30pm.
Assessing Saville: Seven months after the publication of the Saville Report a panel discussion seeking to assess the strengths, flaws and impact of the report legally, politically and culturally.

Panel to include: Eamon McCann - Chair of Bloody Sunday Trust; Christine Bell - legal academic; Jane Winter - British Irish Rights Watch; Niall O’Dochartaigh - historian; Eamonn Mallie - media analyst & journalist

Chair: Paul O’Connor, Pat Finucane Centre

Venue: Pilots Row, Rossville Street, 8pm
Sunday 30 January
Wreath-Laying Ceremony and Prayer Service Venue: Bloody Sunday Monument, Rossville Street, 11am.
Bloody Sunday Commemorative March and Rally. Chair: John Kelly. Speakers Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin; Mark Durkan, SDLP; Ballymurphy Families representative; Gerry Duddy, Bloody Sunday relative. Renowned singer Frances Black will conclude proceedings on the platform.

Assemble: Creggan Shops, 2:30pm.