The Bloody Sunday Inquiry

Edited and Introduced by Eamonn McCann

Description

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry has been epic in its scale and implications. This is the story of how it came about and of the hopes and suspicions which surround it, told from a uniquely personal point of view.



Twenty-one wounded survivors and relatives of the dead describe the campaign which led to the establishment of the Inquiry under Lord Saville. They reveal their bitterness at the 'whitewash' of the first inquiry under Lord Chief Justice Widgery, and describe the frustrations and elations of their long struggle to force the British Government to launch a new search for the truth.



The relatives comment sharply on Saville’s performance, and on the attitudes of British and Irish politicians, the media and an array of celebrity lawyers. They reflect on whether soldiers and leading politicians should now be prosecuted for murder, and discuss whether the outcome of the Inquiry is likely to hinder or enhance the peace process. Will the truth about Bloody Sunday raise more ghosts than it sets to rest?



This is the story of the longest legal proceedings in British or Irish history in the raw words of those most intimately involved. What they have to say puts a new focus on the significance of State atrocities in shaping perceptions of the past and aspirations for the future in Ireland.

Chronology

Leading lawyers

Introduction

1 Campaign

2 Saville

3 Lawyers

4 Media

5 Heath

6 Soldiers

7 Neighbours

8 IRA

9 London

10 Conclusion

Afterword

Sujets

• Civil Rights
• HISTORY
• Droit et juridique
• Irlanda del Norte
• Reino Unido
• Bloody Sunday Inquiry
• Mike Jackson
• General officer
• Military
• War crime
• Civil and political rights
• United Kingdom
• Northern Ireland
• Bogside
• Great Britain
• LAW
• General
• International
• Derry
• Bloody Sunday
• Royaume-Uni
• Irlande du Nord

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 novembre 2005
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781849643177
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

The Bloody Sunday
Inquiry
The Families Speak Out
Edited and introduced by Eamonn McCann
Pluto Press
London • Dublin • Ann Arbor, MIFirst published 2006 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106
Distributed in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland by
Columba Mercier Distribution, 55A Spruce Avenue,
Stillorgan Industrial Park, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.
Tel: + 353 1 294 2556. Fax: + 353 1 294 2564
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Eamonn McCann 2006
The right of Eamonn McCann to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7453 2511 4 hardback
ISBN 0 7453 2510 6 paperback
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by
Curran Publishing Services, Norwich
Printed and bound in the European Union by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne, EnglandCONTENTS
Acknowledgements v
Chronology vi
Introduction 1
1 Campaign 21
2 Saville 43
3 Lawyers 57
4 Media 68
5 Heath 78
6 Soldiers 85
7 Neighbours 109
8 IRA 124
9 London 132
10 Conclusion 150
Afterword 181Acknowledgements
This book was commissioned the Bloody Sunday Trust.
Among those whose support was important are Gemma Cairns, Tracey
Collins, Patricia Coyle, Nuala Crilly, Tony Doherty, Seamus Farrell, Pat
Friel, Ciaran Gallagher, Angela Hegarty, Jean Hegarty, Paul Hippsley,
Kitty Holland, Luke Holland, Goretti Horgan, Matty Horgan, Catherine
Kelly, John Kelly, Adrian Kerr, Paul McCauley, Conal FcFeely, Britt
Madsen, Christy Moore, Hilary Morton, Jim O’Neill and Anita Villa.
The photographs of the interviewees are by Mark Willets. Other
photographs courtesy of Hugh Gallagher, the Derry Journal and the Bloody
Sunday Trust.
Eamonn McCann
September 2005
Acknowledgements vChronology
The Bloody Sunday Inquiry was announced by British Prime Minister
Tony Blair in a statement to the House of Commons on 29 January 1998.
The members of the Tribunal appointed to conduct the Inquiry were
Lord Saville of Newdigate, Judge William Hoyt, former chief justice of
the Canadian province of New Brunswick, and retired New Zealand
judge, Sir Edward Somers. Somers withdrew for health reasons in July
2000 and was replaced by former Australian High Court judge, John
Toohey.
Saville made his introductory statement at Derry Guildhall on 3 April
1999. Oral hearings began at the Guildhall on 27 March 2000, with the
opening speech by Christopher Clarke QC, counsel to the Inquiry. The
first witness took the stand on 28 November 2000.
The Tribunal ruled in December 1998 that military witnesses should be
publicly identified, other than in exceptional cases. This ruling was
reversed by the Court of Appeal in London in July 1999.
In August 2001, the Tribunal ruled that, other than in exceptional cases,
soldiers should testify at Derry Guildhall. This ruling was reversed by the
Court of Appeal in London in December 2001.
In May 1999, the Tribunal upheld an application from a number of
police officers to give their evidence from behind screens. In February
2002, most of the other police officers scheduled to testify applied for
and were granted screening. An application by lawyers for the families
for judicial review of this ruling was rejected by the Northern Ireland
Court of Appeal in March 2002.
The Inquiry moved to the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, on 24
September 2002 to hear the testimony of British soldiers and others.
Hearings continued at Central Hall until 21 October 2003. The Tribunal then
returned to Derry, where hearings resumed on 29 October 2003. The main
body of evidence was completed on 13 February 2004. In June 2004 two
additional witnesses were heard. Clarke’s closing speech was delivered at
the Guildhall on 22 and 23 November 2004. The Tribunal sat briefly on 27
vi The Bloody Sunday InquiryJanuary 2005 to hear evidence from a final witness. In all, the Inquiry sat
for 434 days.
The cost of the Inquiry was around £155 million.
The Tribunal’s report is expected to be published in early 2006.
Lord Gifford (on the left) and Sir Louis Blom-Cooper Lord Saville
TRIBUNAL MEMBERS
The Honourable Lord Saville of Newdigate (Chairman)
The Honourable Mr William Hoyt
The Honourable Mr John L. Toohey
(Mr Toohey replaced Sir Edward Somers, who retired on health grounds
in July 2000.)
COUNSEL TO THE INQUIRY
Christopher Clarke QC
Alan Roxburgh
Cathryn McGahey
Bilal Rawat
Chronology viiArthur Harvey QC, Barry MacDonald QC, Seamus Treacy QC, Michael
Lavery QC, Karen Quinliven, Tom McCreanor, Ciaran Harvey, Brian
McCartney and Fiona Doherty (instructed by Madden & Finucane)
represented Gerard McKinney, William McKinney, Gerald Donaghey,
Michael McDaid, John Young, Michael Kelly, Jackie Duddy, Kevin
McElhinney, Hugh Pius Gilmour and John Johnston (killed); Joseph Friel,
Joseph Mahon, Patrick O’Donnell, Patrick McDaid, Alana Burke and
Damien Donaghey (wounded); and Patrick Campbell, Margaret Deery
and Daniel McGowan (wounded, now deceased).
Lord Gifford QC and Richard Harvey (instructed by McCartney & Casey)
represented James Wray (deceased).
Michael Mansfield QC and Kieran Mallon (instructed by MacDermott &
McGurk) represented William Nash (deceased), Alexander Nash
(wounded/now deceased) and Daniel Gillespie (wounded).
Michael Mansfield QC and John Coyle (instructed by Desmond J. Doherty
& Co) represented Bernard McGuigan (deceased).
Declan Morgan QC and Brian Kennedy (instructed by Brendan Kearney,
Kelly & Co) represented Michael Bridge and Michael Bradley (wounded).
Eilis McDermott QC and Mary McHugh (instructed by Barr & Co)
represented Patrick Doherty (deceased).
Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC and Paddy O’Hanlon (instructed by Francis
Keenan) represented the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association
(NICRA).
Edwin Glasgow QC, Edward Lawson QC, Gerard Elias QC, Sir Allan
Green QC and Rosamund Horwood-Smart QC (instructed by the
Treasury Solicitors) were the lead barristers representing military
witnesses.
viii The Bloody Sunday InquiryIntroduction
The smoke hadn’t cleared from the Bogside when Captain Mike Jackson,
second-in-command of the First Battalion of the Parachute Regiment,
standing in the lee of the Rossville Street Flats, began pondering the
notes that the Bloody Sunday families believe were to become the basis
for a cover-up of murder.
Huddled in the houses and flats into which they had fled, looking
fearfully out on the scene, neighbours of the dead were already resolving that,
however long it might take, there’d be a reckoning.
In the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster more than 31 years later,
in October 2003, General Sir Michael Jackson, as he now was, Chief of the
General Staff, Britain’s number one soldier, was explaining to Michael
Mansfield, barrister for the families of some of the victims, that he could
remember next to nothing about compiling the Bloody Sunday ‘shot list’
and could not explain why none of the shots described in his list appeared
to conform to any of the shots actually fired.
This book is the Bloody Sunday families’ account of how they
succeeded in forcing Jackson and his soldiers and superiors to explain, if
they could, in public and under oath, how and why they had killed or
wounded 28 unarmed civil rights marchers in Derry on 30 January 1972.
The first official show of trying to establish the truth was phoney. On
the day after the killings, Prime Minister Edward Heath asked the Lord
Chief Justice, Lord Widgery, to conduct a public inquiry under the
Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act, 1921. Widgery didn’t waste time. He
defined his remit narrowly, to cover events on ‘the streets of Londonderry
where the disturbances and the ultimate shooting took place’ over ‘the
period beginning with the moment when the march ... first became
involved in violence and ending with the conclusion of the affair and the
deaths’. There was to be no examination of prior military or political
planning or of suggestions of subsequent cover-up. Widgery sat on 17 days
between 21 February and 14 March, hearing 114 witnesses, of whom 30
were Derry civilians. Hundreds of eyewitness statements, mostly collected
Introduction 1by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), organisers of
the 30 January march, were made available to Widgery and were ignored
by him. Six of the 14 wounded were not approached for an account of how
they’d come to be shot.
Widgery’s selection of soldiers to give evidence was significant, too.
Company Sergeant Major (CSM) Lewis, who had commanded Support
Company of the First Paras, which probably fired all the fatal shots,
made himself available to testify, but inexplicably, as it seemed at the
time, wasn’t called.
Widgery passed his 39-page report to Home Secretary Reginald Maudling
on 10 April. It was published on 18 April, eleven weeks after the event.
Heath’s government didn’t wait for Widgery’s hearings, much less his
report, before disseminating its own version of events. On 1 February, as
Widgery’s appointment was being announced in the House of
Commons, British Information Services (BIS) was distributing to wire
services and broadcasting outlets across the world a document headed
‘Northern Ireland: Londonderry’ telling that, ‘Of the 13 men killed, four
were on the security force’s wanted list .… One man had four nail bombs
in his pocket .… Throughout the fighting that ensued, the army fired
only at identified targets – at attacking gunmen and bombers .… The
troops came under indiscriminate firing.’
The document ended with a list detailing 14 separate shooting
incidents which it suggested made up the ‘fighting’. These were the 14
incidents on the ‘shot list’ in Jackson’s handwriting, which was to come to
light more than three decades later.
Michael Quinn (left) and Daniel Gi