A new report which fundamentally discredits the Widgery Tribunal and its findings was published in Derry this Thursday (30 January). The report, prepared by Dr Dermot Walsh, Professor of Law at the University of Limerick, has been published by the Bloody Sunday Trust which was officially launched in Derry at the same time. The new report indicates that the manner in which Lord Widgery, then the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, inquired into the deaths of 13 civilians killed on Sunday, 30 January 1972 (Bloody Sunday) by members of the British Parachute Regiment was fundamentally flawed and that Widgery systematically ignored evidence which indicated that members of the British Army had committed murder. The report by Professor Walsh also examines in great detail statements made by members of the Parachute Regiment in the immediate aftermath of the killings. These statements differ significantly from those which they subsequently gave to the Widgery inquiry after they had been legally advised by military lawyers. According to Walsh all the soldiers who fired bullets on that day and whose original statements he has examined should have been charged with murder or attempted murder on the basis of their original statements. Professor Walsh also made the point that these statements were deliberately withheld from legal counsel for the families of the deceased who were present at the Widgery Inquiry.
It is on the basis of the report submitted by Professor Walsh that at the same time as the report was being published, Bloody Sunday Trust member Peter Madden of Madden and Finucane, the solicitors representing the relatives of those killed on Bloody Sunday, applied in the High Court at Belfast for a judicial review seeking to overturn the findings of the Widgery Tribunal.
A summary of the main findings of the Walsh report is available from the home page. The Pat Finucane Centre is planning to make the full 96 page report available on the internet within a few days.
The Bloody Sunday Trust was officially launched in Derry on Thursday (30 January). The new Trust's membership is made up of relatives of those killed, legal experts, academics and human rights activists. The Trust was officially launched at the Ráth Mór Centre, Creggan by former Bishop of Derry, Edward Daly, who came to the world's attention as the priest waving the white handkerchief as he and a number of other men carried the dying Jack Duddy out of the Bogside after he had been shot by members of the Parachute Regiment. In his address to the media and invited audience Bishop Daly said that "those of us who witnessed the events of that day feel a burden of responsibility to right the wrong, to act as guarantors for the good names of those who died, to proclaim to all the world the truth of what happened on that day. A great wrong was done. A great injustice was perpetrated. Innocent people were murdered. This wrong was compounded by the manner in which false allegations were made against the dead. These false allegations still cause intense hurt to the families of the victims."
Bishop Daly continued "Don Mullan's recently published book, Eyewitness Bloody Sunday has been highly significant. It offers the opportunity to read a substantial number of those eyewitness statements which have lain unread and unnoticed for 25 years. I believe that his book will make a substantial contribution to the appreciation of the significance of that day and its impact on this community.
"New and important evidence has now emerged from the Public Records Office in London. Professor Walsh's report, The Bloody Sunday Tribunal of Enquiry, which is being published today is of great significance. Complex legal issues are difficult for the lay person to comprehend. Professor Walsh examines the proceedings of the Widgery Tribunal and Report in the light of this new evidence. He describes the Widgery Tribunal as a resounding defeat for truth, justice and the rule of law. I hope that the Governments and agencies to whom this report is being sent will give it due and careful attention. The time has now come to carry out the task which Widgery miserably failed to do. The newly established Bloody Sunday Trust, which is being launched today and which commissioned Professor Walsh's report will endeavour to follow up this report in various ways and attempt to establish the truth. I am pleased to launch the Bloody Sunday Trust and wish it well. I hope that all sections of our community will eventually find themselves able to support the work of the Trust."
Also speaking at the launch of the Trust was the Director of British Irish Rights Watch, Jane Winter. During the course of her address Jane Winter said: "perhaps one of the greatest injustices that was done to the people concerned, apart from the wholly unjustified blackening of the victims'names, was the failure to recognise the extraordinary courage shown by ordinary people in Derry that day. Many of those killed and injured died or suffered terrible wounds in the act of trying to help or protect others. If they had been soldiers or police officers, they would have been given medals. Instead, the government tried to brand them as rioters and bombers.
The Chair of the new Trust, Robin Percival, a member of the
Pat
Finucane Centre, spoke about how in 1989 when the Pat Finucane
Centre was
first established (under the name of the Bloody Sunday
Initiative) one of
its first objectives had been to raise renewed public concern
over the issue of
the Bloody Sunday killings. Together the Centre and some of
the relatives
of those killed had
sought to make the commemoration of Bloody Sunday in Derry a
commemoration
open and welcoming to the whole community. Over the years since
then they had
attracted to Derry, not without some difficulty, a range of
political
viewpoints without precedent in any other part of Ireland.
In 1992, following the
twentieth anniversary, the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign had
been
established to focus specifically on clearing the names of those
killed and
wounded, overturning the Widgery report and to seek the
prosecution of
those guilty of murder. Now after 25 years the purpose of the
newly
established Bloody Sunday Trust
was to create in Derry the most comprehensive archive on the
events of Bloody
Sunday and the local history of the past thirty years. The Trust
would
also commission research and prepare appropriate educational
material
for the coming generations for whom the civil rights movement and
Bloody Sunday are
merely historical events. The watchwords of the Trust would be
"human
rights, reconciliation and healing".
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Loyalist workers at a shirt factory on the outskirts of Derry jeered at those workers who tried to hold a two minutes silence in memory of those killed on Bloody Sunday. Workers who stood in silence by their machines were jeered at by loyalists. They were then jeered at and abused by hostile Loyalists as they attempted to leave the factory.
Desmonds is a clothing manufacturing factory whose main customer is the British firm Marks & Spencer. The factory at the centre of this controversary is situated in the Unionist community of Newbuildings and employs an approximately 80% Protestant work force. Despite the strength of the Unionist workforce in the factory, both the Democratic Unionist party in Derry and the fringe loyalist party the UDP claimed that Unionists were being "intimidated" by some workers wearing a small black ribbon in remembrance of those killed on Bloody Sunday. Yesterday (31 January) trouble at the factory continued when a large number of Unionist workers downed tools in protest at those workers who had worn the black ribbons. There are reports that a number of workers who did not weant to join the strike only did so when threatened with violence by pro-Loyalist elements within the factory.
In another factory, Coats Viyella, also situated in the Waterside area of Derry, employees who held a two minute silence in the canteen were locked out of the factory by management. About 150 workers at the factory were verbally abused as they took part in the two minutes silence.
Both the Irish Taoiseach John Bruton and the Tanaiste Dick Spring have called for a new inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday. Dick Spring said that it was incumbent on the British Government to examine all the new information. Dick Spring said of the new evidence which has come to light in the past few weeks: "It strikes me as being extremely significant and very serious, and it certainly is in conflict with the findings of the Widgery Tribunal. In this case, I believe that immediate steps should be taken to make sure the new information is examined in a very open way."
John Hume, the MP for Derry, has tabled a motion in the British House of Commons also calling for a new inquiry. He has told the Pat Finucane Centre that over 75 British MPS have joined him in signing the motion.
Derry City Council has decided to send a deputation to Westminster to lobby for a new and independent inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday. Both the SDLP and Sinn Féin councillors voted in favour of the move whereas all the Unionist councillors abstained. It was also agreed that relatives of those killed on Bloody Sunday should join the councillors when they went to London.
Sinn Féin councillors also suggested that the council should establish a working party and that the support of the Irish government be enlisted. The original motion had been proposed by the SDLP leader Pat Devine
Though the Unionists abstained, it was clear that they did not have much time for the proposal. Gregory Campbell, the leader of Ian Paisley's DUP group on the council said that the issue of Bloody Sunday was surrounded with "paranoia that the British Government was out to crush the Civil Rights Movement. If that is the case they did a very poor job."
The British Government has reiterated its position that as far
as they
are concerned the events of Bloody Sunday, though regrettable,
were
satisfactorily dealt with by the Widgery report.
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The Guildhall in Derry was packed to capacity last night (Friday, 31 January) to hear former Irish Press editor and author Tim Pat Coogan give the annual Bloody Sunday lecturer. Previous lecturers have been Bernadette McAliskey, John Hume and Gerry Adams. Tim Pat spoke for an hour outling the political case for the restoration by the IRA of its ceasefire. He argued that August 31 1994 had been a historic event of the utmost importance, the benefits of which had been squandered by a British Government effectively controlled by a group of anti-European, pro-union right wing MPS who supported the Unionists in everything. However Tim Pat Coogan spoke of the immense and powerful forces which favoured an inclusive peace process and the building of a new Ireland. He spoke of the Irish diaspora throughout the world and the enormous flowering of respect and love for Ireland in Europe and world-wide. He said that Gerry Adams had achieved something that even Eamonn de Valera had not in his days as President of Sinn Féin and that was to be granted a meeting with the President of the USA. He spoke of the determination of the Irish Government and the quality of its civil servants. He argued that a renewed IRA ceasefire and somekind of electoral pact in time for the next General election would have an enormous potential to advance the situation politically.
The Bloody Sunday lecture, which was chaired by Don Mullan, author of the best selling book Eyewitness Bloody Sunday, began with a short talk by James Porter the radio ham who had taped over one and half hours of military and RUC radio communications during the events of Bloody Sunday. Some of the tapes were played and then he handed a copy of the tapes to John Kelly, brother of Michael Kelly, who is the chair of the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign, the organisation which sponsors the annual lecture.
The report of the North commission into contentious parades was published in Belfast on Thursday (30 January). The report made 43 recommendations for regulating marches in the North. The core proposal of the commission is that the British Secretary of State should set up a five person "independent body" called a Parades Commission. This commission would have a number of roles including: education, ie working for greater understanding at the local level; promoting and facilitating mediation and the search for local accomodation in respect of contentious parades; if mediation fails, the commission might impose certain conditions. However, in what is seen as a fundamental weakness of the proposals, the North Commission recommends that on public order grounds the RUC could over turn the ruling of thew Parades Commission on the actual day of a proposed march. This would mean that the RUC would still have the power to force through an Orange parade even if the Parades Commission has ruled against it, on the grounds of "public order"
Residents' groups in the have been cautious in their response to the proposals of the North Commission. Mr Breandán MacCionnaith of the Garvaghy Residents' Coalition said of the report: "It recognises the right to march, with some qualification, but it doesn't give the same recognition to the rights of residents. The right of marchers take absolute precedence." Nor had the North Commission addressed the issue of the RUC's religious and political makeup. "Thirty per cent of RUC officers are members of the Orange Order, the Apprentice Boys or the Black Perceptory. The report ignores that and the mass disaffection and virtual mutiny of the RUC at Drumcree last year. The RUC quite clearly cannot implement the law impartially, yet the report allows it to have the final say on the parades issue."
John Gormley of the Lower Ormeau Road Residents' Action Group said that the "acid test of the report is whether it guarantees there will not be a repeat of Drumcree and the answer is No." Fr Eamon Stack, SJ, Secretary of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition said that his group was disappointed that "they have given a definition of the right to march but they have not given an equivalent statement of the rights of the communities to be free from intimidation." Fr Stack went onto say that there was now "enormous pressure" on the residents of Garvaghy to step back and to allow the parade through in July.
Meanwhile Donncha Mac Niallais of the Bogside Residents' Group told Ireland's News Updatethat the group would be meeting next week to give their considered reponse to the proposals of the commission. He said that he fully agreed with the commission when it recommended the need for local dialogue between marchers and local communities.
All the residents' groups want Irish, European and US
politicians and
human rights activists to monitor this years Orange parades,
particularly
in sensitive areas. They are also seeking a meeting with the
Irish
Government and they are meeting the Church of Ireland Archbishop
of Armagh,
Dr Robin Eames this weekend. Newly selected Ulster Unionist
candidate for
the Lagan Valley constituency
Jeffrey Donaldson. a deputy grand master in the Orange Order has
said that
the Orange Order intends to parade down the Garvaghy Road this
year and
is prepared to go "right down to the wire."
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This edition of Ireland News Update has been posted one day early. As we are sure our regulars will appreciate, this weekend in particular is one of the busiest of the year in Derry for us and our friends. We are hoping to post another News Update in the next two days which will give further reports on the Bloody Sunday weekend in Derry as well as more news on other issues. We are also hoping to post the full text of the Walsh Report. Also we are planning to post a German language version of our publication on the case of Danny MacNamee. By next weekend we will be back to normal but right now this weekend is a bit hectic!