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Bloody Sunday Inquiry
PRESS RELEASE
British Irish rights watch (BIRW) welcomes the Saville report.
BIRW has been supporting the victims of Bloody Sunday for the past 18 years and our work helped to bring about the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville.
BIRW’s Director, Jane Winter, was at the House of Commons today at the request of the Bloody Sunday families to hear the Prime Minister announce the publication of the report and to attend the debate following his announcement.
BIRW strongly welcomes the fact that the report exonerated all the dead and the injured, and the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, of any responsibility for the shootings which left 13 dead and a similar number injured. We also welcome the Prime Minister’s unequivocal acceptance that the shootings were unjustified and unjustifiable and his apology on behalf of the government and the nation to all the victims and their relatives. His assurance that the discredited Widgery Tribunal report is now completely superseded is also welcome.
BIRW salute the survivors of Bloody Sunday, who have campaigned with great courage, dignity, and dedication for 38 long and difficult years in order to ascertain the truth and restore the good names of the victims. The report vindicates their efforts and rewards their patience.
Jane Winter said:
“We welcome the
long-awaited publication of the report of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry. Today
is a day to remember the dead and the injured, and the many people in Derry
who were affected by what happened on Bloody Sunday. However, we have some
concerns about the Inquiry’s findings that all the deaths and injuries arose
solely from the unforeseeable and unjustified actions of certain soldiers
and their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Wilford. We are also surprised by
the finding that Gerald Donaghy ‘probably’ had nail bombs in his pockets
when he was shot, even though his killing was also unjustified. However, we
have not yet seen the full report, and will be studying it in detail over
the summer. We also have great sympathy with other victims of the Northern
Ireland conflict whose cases have not been fully and independently
investigated, and reiterate our belief that Northern Ireland needs and
deserves a proper mechanism for dealing with all its past.”
Tuesday 15th June 2010
-- ENDS --
Background information for editors
British Irish rights watch is an independent non-governmental organisation that has been monitoring the human rights dimension of the conflict, and the peace process, in Northern Ireland since 1990. Our vision is of a Northern Ireland in which respect for human rights is integral to all its institutions and experienced by all who live there. Our mission is to secure respect for human rights in Northern Ireland and to disseminate the human rights lessons learned from the Northern Ireland conflict in order to promote peace, reconciliation and the prevention of conflict. BIRW’s services are available, free of charge, to anyone whose human rights have been violated because of the conflict, regardless of religious, political or community affiliations. BIRW take no position on the eventual constitutional outcome of the conflict.
Those who died on Bloody Sunday were:
Patrick Doherty 31
Gerald Donaghy 17
Jack Duddy 17
Hugh Gilmour 17
Michael Kelly 17
Michael McDaid 20
Kevin McElhinney 17
Bernard McGuigan 41
Gerald McKinney 35
William McKinney 26
William Nash 19
James Wray 22
John Young 17
One of the injured, John Johnson, died not long after Bloody Sunday.
The Inquiry formally opened in July 1998. Since hearings started on 27 March 2000 the Inquiry has sat for 435 days, heard 922 witnesses and read another 1,555 witness statements. 42 witnesses were screened from the public. Of the 922 witnesses: 502 were civilians, 245 military, 49 journalists and photographers, 39 politicians and civilian servants, 33 police officers, 35 former paramilitaries, 9 experts and 7 priests.
The Inquiry’s terms of reference were to inquire into “the events of Sunday, 30th January 1972 which led to loss of life in connection with the procession in Londonderry on that day, taking account of any new information relevant to events on that day”.
The Inquiry was conducted by an international tribunal of judges, chaired by the Right Honourable Lord Saville of Newdigate. The other Tribunal members were the Honourable William L Hoyt (formerly Chief Justice of New Brunswick, Canada) and the Honourable John L Toohey (former Justice of the High Court of Australia).
BIRW has attended as an observer and produced reports for the following weeks:
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