Bernie McAdam
Nearly four decades after the massacre of civil rights protesters by British paratroopers, the victims families finally have an official conclusion, writes Bernie McAdam
“Literally two and a half feet from me I heard one young man cry out and he was Michael Kelly and he fell to the ground. At that point things become quite confused in my mind.”
“There was a lot of panic and a lot of fear. I can recall a bullet hitting the wall above my head, quite high above my head. At that stage I came to my senses and began to run.” – Don Mullan, eyewitness
On January 30 1972 British paratroopers murdered 13 unarmed civil rights protestors in Derry. Another fourteenth victim died of his injuries shortly afterwards. The recently published Saville Report has declared that these killings were ‘unjustified and unjustifiable’. After 12 years of deliberation and 38 years after the events the Report finally vindicates the innocence of the victims. Even David Cameron was forced to apologise in the House of Commons.
The discredited Widgery Tribunal, which took place immediately after Bloody Sunday formed the basis of the British government’s response for 38 years. The Report cleared British soldiers of wrong doing and was at pains to suggest they had come under fire from protestors. It is now clear that Lord Widgery, the report author, was lying. The long and determined campaign of the relatives of the murdered has eventually exposed the truth. The people of Derry have long known what really happened on Bloody Sunday and it was a victory for them that Britain finally owned up.
The Saville Report states that soldiers gave no warning they were about to open fire on civilians. They had not been attacked by petrol bombs or stones before they began shooting. “Despite the contrary evidence given by the soldiers, we have concluded that none of them fired in response to attacks or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombers. No one threw or threatened to throw a nail or petrol bomb at the soldiers on Bloody Sunday.”
The order to fire should not have been given. Some of the victims had been running away from the soldiers and were shot in the back. Some were even helping other injured victims and none of them were armed. The report also said that soldiers had ‘knowingly put forward false accounts’ during the investigation.
The army press releases on the evening of the massacre all claimed soldiers being under heavy gunfire, but this has now been exposed as a lie. Captain Michael Jackson, second in command on the day, was rewarded for his cover up account by eventually assuming the top post in the army. His ‘shot list’ turned out to be a fabrication, with none of the shots described in the list conforming to evidence of shots actually fired. Some shots had apparently had passed through buildings to find their targets.
A few bad eggs?
The Saville Report has exonerated the innocent, although it does not draw the obvious conclusion that this was unlawful killing or murder. But unsurprisingly it has also absolved the British Government. It did not find any conspiracy in the government or in the higher echelons of the army to use lethal force against demonstrators in Derry. Lt Colonel Wilford in charge of the Paras that entered the Bogside was criticised for going further than his orders warranted and a number of Paras had lost self control – but for the Saville report it all boils down to a few bad eggs!
This disingenuous theory diverts attention from the role senior figures in the army and government played on Bloody Sunday and indeed in Northern Ireland throughout this period. The Report heard how Major-General Ford, commander of land forces in Northern Ireland wrote in a memo to General Tuzo three weeks before Bloody Sunday. ‘I am coming to the conclusion that the minimum force needed to achieve the restoration of law and order is to shoot selected ringleaders amongst the Derry young hooligans, after clear warnings have been given.’ Prime Minister Ted Heath four days later told his cabinet ‘A military operation to reimpose law and order would be a major operation necessarily involving numerous civilian casualties.’ Clearly the British government had been discussing the Civil Rights march prior to Bloody Sunday even sending a memo to the British embassy in Washington warning of hostile reactions if there was trouble in Derry.
Why Bloody Sunday?
Bloody Sunday was not a one off incident or an aberration in policy, let alone a question of bad eggs in an otherwise splendid army. It can only be understood in the context of Britain’s role in Ireland and the sectarian state it helped form and prop up since 1921. The ‘Northern Ireland’ state was based on systematic social oppression of Catholics with discrimination at every level including voting, jobs and housing. The year 1968 saw Catholics flocking to the streets to fight for civil rights but the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and loyalists were determined not to give an inch and replied with attacks on Catholics.
The overwhelmingly Protestant RUC had been driven out of Derry’s Catholic or nationalist areas in August 1969, so British troops were deployed to restore control. As troops increasingly took to the streets it became clear to all those struggling for civil rights that the army and their masters in Whitehall were not interested in reforming the state but in breaking all resistance to it. That’s why internment without trial was introduced in August 1971 to cut the head off the protest movement. As the army and police rounded up around 350 people and several cases of torture leaked out, mass resistance grew. 8,000 workers held a one day strike in Derry, rent and rates strikes were joined by tens of thousands and attacks on soldiers and police increased.
Internment was not the only ploy Britain used. The British army operated curfews, sealed off whole areas; mass raids and shootings became common place. Between 9 and 11 August 1971 eleven people were murdered by the Parachute regiment in the Ballymurphy area of West Belfast, all were unarmed and one was a priest. When the same regiment was drafted into Derry six months later it is no surprise that ‘Soldier 027’ reported to the Saville Tribunal that his platoon had been ordered ‘to get some kills’.
Justice means Britain out now
The role of the army was not to make peace between warring communities nor were they neutral. They were used by the British government to smash resistance to the six county state. The artificial and frail nature of the Northern Ireland state could not exist without a permanent military back up and repressive laws like the Special Powers Act so loved by apartheid South Africa.
Partition was Britain’s answer to the War of Independence in 1921. The northern state that was founded then was and is a prison house for Irish nationalists. Integral to its existence was systematic social oppression of a minority on the basis of their nationality – their identification with Irish nationalism and a united Ireland. Any challenge to the endemic and institutionalised discrimination would inevitably rekindle a national struggle. Bloody Sunday hastened that struggle and made it more intense.
The Saville Report and Cameron’s apology occurs at a relatively safe time for the continued British occupation of ‘Northern Ireland’. It serves as a reminder to us of how British army cover ups are used and how they continue to be used in other occupied zones like Iraq and Afghanistan. How many decades will pass before the imperialists admit to their crimes in these countries?
Full justice can only come about when British troops are withdrawn and the repressive apparatus is smashed. Right now Northern Ireland and its sectarian state remain intact. Maghaberry republican prisoners are tortured and beaten, Loyalist Orange marches still threaten nationalist communities and unemployment and cuts are set to rip through all Irish workers though with particular vengeance on nationalist areas. The fight for a Workers Republic is the best way we can avenge and remember the brave civil rights protesters that were cut down by the British government and their army on that shameful day in Derry.