Half a century later, the feeling of injustice persists. Under a gray and humid sky, hundreds of Irish people commemorated Bloody Sunday on Sunday, the still unpunished assassination of 13 Catholic demonstrators who fell in 1972 under the bullets of British soldiers.
The wounds remain alive among the residents of Derry-Londonderry, in Northern Ireland, fifty years after this massacre which tarnished in a lasting way the credibility of the British regime.
” NEVER FORGET “, headlined Friday the Derry Newspaper below the file photo of a scene of the carnage. The buildings of the city are also lined with murals denouncing the death of these peaceful demonstrators who marched to denounce the arbitrary detentions of Catholic activists, without trial, practiced at the time by London.
None of the soldiers who shot these citizens of Northern Ireland have been punished or even publicly identified for fifty years. Although the British government offered an apology in 2010 for this “unwarranted and unjustifiable” tragedy, Irish Catholics remain outraged.
“There is no British justice. It is important for me to affirm it today. The whole world must know that impunity still reigns,” said Fiona Gallagher, a 53-year-old mother and grandmother met on Sunday during the commemoration of Bloody Sunday.
The conflict is so deep that Catholics and Protestants do not even agree on the name of the city where the killing took place. Catholics call it Derry. Protestants loyal to the British regime (on which Northern Ireland depends) call it Londonderry instead.
This Bloody Sunday tragedy, which occurred on January 30, 1972, had inflamed the violence that had been simmering for years in Northern Ireland. The “Troubles”, as they are called here, lasted three decades, until the peace agreement reached in 1998. This climate of civil war claimed the lives of 3,600 people. The scars of conflict still hurt.
A young man gone too soon
Fiona Gallagher has tears in her eyes as she recounts the impact of the violence on her family. Around the time of Bloody Sunday, his 16-year-old brother, Jim, enlisted in the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which was waging an armed struggle against Protestant loyalists.
Jim Gallagher was arrested and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for being a member of the IRA. Six days after his release, in May 1976, the young man was shot dead by British soldiers, who had followed and deliberately targeted him, says Fiona Gallagher.
“This pain, I still feel it in my bones. It’s painful, but I’m calm. For me, it is essential not to transmit hatred to my children,” she says. Mission successful: his two daughters, proud Catholics, are engaged to young men of “Protestant tradition”, explains Fiona Gallagher.
Reconciliation stories like this don’t seem common. People we spoke to speak of a rather cold peace in Northern Ireland, despite gestures of rapprochement from both sides. Sign of the still present animosity, a hundred “walls of peace”, erected over the years between Catholic and Protestant sectors of Northern Ireland – especially in the capital, Belfast – remain in place despite the 1998 peace agreement.
amnesty for crimes
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland, Micheál Martin, came to his northern neighbors on Sunday to lay a wreath at the foot of the monument commemorating Bloody Sunday. He described as “a privilege” his meeting in the morning with families who lost a loved one in this “terrible atrocity”.
“I thanked them for their dignified, tireless and courageous campaign for the universal principles of justice, truth and accountability. States are particularly accountable in this matter,” added Micheál Martin.
The head of the Irish government recalled the apologies formulated in 2010 by the British Prime Minister at the time, David Cameron, in the wake of an independent investigation which concluded beyond any doubt that the English soldiers were at fault. The demonstrators killed by the soldiers in 1972 had at no time threatened the lives of the soldiers deployed to frame the march, concluded this investigation. The report demolished the London version that soldiers had returned to armed attacks by protesters.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is nevertheless seeking to pass a law that would grant amnesty for crimes committed in Northern Ireland during the “Troubles” from 1968 to 1998.
This amnesty project is “a slap in the face for the victims of British policies”, says Denise Mullen, deputy leader of a movement advocating the unification of Ireland. Her father was assassinated in 1975 by a loyalist Protestant activist. She supports the families of Bloody Sunday victims who have been fighting for fifty years for justice.
Denise Mullen had a quavering voice on Sunday, in front of the wreaths laid at the foot of the obelisk erected in the center of Derry. “It’s a sad day. I have great sympathy for the families of the victims. Catholics have made progress for fifty years, they now have access to good jobs and a good education, but the social fabric has deteriorated,” she says.
Climate of mistrust
Emmet Boyle, an alderman in Derry, believes the problems of the last century remain for Catholics in Northern Ireland. “Boris Johnson’s government does not understand our reality. There is still a lot of public distrust of the police and the state in general,” he said.
This 35-year-old elected official also dreams of a single country that would meet the aspirations of the Irish people. He denounces the impunity granted to the authors of Bloody Sunday. Criminal charges brought by the Public Prosecution Service of Northern Ireland against one of the servicemen, named as Private F, were put on hold in 2021 due to weak evidence, Irish media reported.
The loyalist leaders of Northern Ireland were discreet on Sunday, on this day of commemoration. But on social networks, Protestant activists recalled the explosive context of Bloody Sunday: armed groups on both sides had committed deadly attacks long before the famous massacre of January 30, 1972. Tension was very high on that fateful day. The British soldiers had every reason to fear the presence of shooters among the marchers.
This report was partly financed thanks to the support of the Transat-International Journalism Fund.The duty.