Republican News · Thursday 8 May 2003

Donegal holds no fear for Wilford

BY FERN LANE

After several years of claiming that he was too terrified to return to Ireland to give evidence to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry in Derry, it has emerged that Colonel Derek Wilford, the former commander of 1 Para, suddenly felt confident enough to make a visit to Donegal last week as guest of honour at the Annual General Meeting of the obscure Society of Saint Patrick.

The Society, which has only been recently revived, was originally a sort of old boys club for British Army officers from the Donegal area who had fought in the First World War. It was restarted in more recent times by its current secretary, Hugh McDermot, a veteran of the Malvinas conflict.

In defending the invitation to Wilford, McDermott told the Derry Journal that the Society regularly invited "aristocratic and military figures from Northern Ireland and England" to its functions. This does not explain why, of all the former British Army officers in all the world, the Society decided to invite the man responsible for the soldiers who murdered 14 unarmed civilians on Bloody Sunday, and who only recently told the Saville Inquiry in London that to this day he does not accept that all were entirely innocent. Perhaps, after the mauling of Wilford at the inquiry and demolition of his evidence, it was a show of solidarity by those of a similar class and ideological ilk looking after one of their own.

"At the end of the day, Colonel Wilford has given his evidence to the inquiry and is entitled to visit Donegal if he wishes," McDermot said, somewhat lamely.

"During his recent visit, he did not travel through or anywhere near Derry. The reason why he has stayed away from the north-west in the past is because he has feared for his life." He went on to add that there were "two Fianna Fáil ministers, a Fine Gael senator and three local town councillors also present at the drinks party after the AGM" who were not offended by the presence of Wilford.

The invitation was slammed by John Kelly, whose brother Michael was murdered on Bloody Sunday. He told the Derry Journal that the visit was "an insult to those who died and were injured on Bloody Sunday and an insult to the people of Derry and Donegal".