Review
By Theo
Russell
Setting
the Truth Free: the inside story of the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign, by Julieann
Campbell. Liberties Press, Dublin, rrp £13.99.
THE 38-year struggle for justice for the victims of the 1972 Bloody
Sunday massacre, like the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six campaigns, exposed the true nature of British justice –
upholding class bigotry and colonial oppression.
Julieann Campbell, the niece of one of the victims
who works for the Bloody Sunday Trust and Free Derry Museum, has brought together a mass of material in a remarkable
new book that reveals just how hard that struggle was.
After the shootings and
Widgery Report the families and wounded were branded as terrorists, received loyalist death threats, and faced constant army raids and harassment.
Even in 1997 relative
Gerry Duddy was still stopped and searched at British airports, while he and Troops
Out Movement stalwart Mary Pearson received multiple death threats from the
National Front.
It was only after the
release of the Guildford Four in 1989 that the families realised justice was possible
and began to organise. Sinn Féin had run annual commemorations, but was happy
to hand the campaign back to the families.
But campaigner and
journalist Eammon McCann said that after the British Parliament accepted Widgery:
“In my secret heart I couldn’t see any mechanism whereby that could be
overthrown.”
The Social
Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the biggest nationalist party in Derry, and the political establishment in Dublin, shunned the campaign
for years. In 1992, when every Irish TD (Member of Parliament) and senator was
invited to the launch of a new book by Eammon McCann in Dublin, only one independent TD responded.
That
year Irish president Mary Robinson laid a wreath for victims of the IRA bomb in
Enniskillen, but refused to meet the Bloody Sunday relatives. When they lobbied her Dublin residence they were followed and intimidated by the Garda
(police) and hecklers shouted “are you still killing children?”. The Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Charlie Haughey and
head of the Catholic Church Cathal Daly also shunned
the families.
In
1994 Prince Charles, Colonel-in-Chief of the Paratroop Regiment, which was
responsible for the massacre,, visited Derry in an embarrassing
fiasco and was forced to cancel his planned walkabout. Even in 1996 his private
secretary wrote to the families advising them to “move on”.
In
1995 the tide began to turn when Irish Taoiseach John Bruton appointed an
official to liaise with the families. That year Jane Winter of British-Irish Rights Watch found the infamous memo
from Edward Heath to Widgery, advising him Britain was “fighting not
only a military war
but a propaganda war”.
In 1997 a detailed
study by Professor Dermot Walsh of Limerick University demolishing the original
Widgery transcript was submitted to the British and Irish governments.
That year 40,000
marched at the Derry commemoration, pressure from US politicians
mounted, and two senior Irish government officials began work on another
damning assessment of Widgery. Some of the
Bloody Sunday soldiers began to speak out.
But it can be argued
that a new inquiry, and the Irish peace process, only became possible after Labour
took power in 1997. Martin McGuinness, interviewed for the book, praises Tony
Blair for recognising a new inquiry as an important part of the peace process.
The new inquiry was announced
in January 1998, and in Tony Doherty’s words: “Blair may have gone on to do a
lot of terrible things in the world, but from our point of view it was the right
thing to do and a very brave thing to do.”
The
inquiry caused huge stress for the families who had to re-live that terrible
day, experience humiliating questioning, and were forced to commute to hearings
London for two years. In the 10 years before the Saville
report was published many more of the relatives and wounded had died.
When
ex-Prime Minister Edward Heath testified in 2003 he denied trying to influence Widgery
and refused to apologise. Relative Kay Duddy described his “how dare you speak
to me like this” attitude as infuriating.
”Soldier 027”, who
testified that “there was no justification for a single shot I saw fired,” paid
a price for his honesty, living under a witness protection scheme to after
threats from ex-Paras who mistakenly assaulted and hospitalised his landlord.
But
most of the soldiers had either “forgotten” everything or denied any wrongdoing.
As relative Paddy Nash said: “In London for the soldiers,
you didn’t know where to put your rage… we saw what I call genuine sorrow maybe
once or twice.”
Head
of the British Army General Michael Jackson, the senior commander at Bloody
Sunday, said he had written a list identifying every victim as a gunman or
bomber “in the early hours” when he had been “rather tired”.
At the last hurdle
delays to publishing the report and the fear of “redactions” after inspection
by MoD and MI5 personnel, led the relatives to launch a new campaign, “Set the Truth
Free”. The slogan was carried on every front page of the Derry Journal and Derry News
until Saville delivered.
When Saville finally
published the report on 15th June 2010 there was jubilation and enormous
relief in Derry. David Cameron’s apology, shown on a screen to the crowds
outside Derry’s Guildhall, was met with a huge cheer.
But key figures such
as Heath and General Jackson escaped significant blame, and the report still maintained
one victim, Gerald Donaghey, had been carrying nail bombs, despite evidence to the
contrary. Bloody Sunday witness Joe Mahon asked: “What about Gerald Donaghey?
They got their pound of flesh.”
The
relatives know Saville wasn’t everything they wanted, which includes
prosecuting the soldiers. Liam Wray says: “The Prime Minister had to apologise,
the Parachute Regiment will always carry that badge of shame. But judging by the
news we see with the British Army in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, that’s the true
sadness, they haven’t learned from any of it.”
Joe Mahon adds:
“Will the army learn? Yes, they will learn to cover things up better. They’ll
learn no moral lessons from Bloody Sunday.”
For anyone who spent
years marching for justice for the Bloody Sunday families, and for any student
of recent Irish history, this book is a must read.
