Bloody Sunday remembered

Up to 10,000 people marched in Derry on Sunday to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Bloody Sunday killings, when 27 civilians were shot, 13 of them dead, by British army paratroopers on January 30th, 1972.

The march followed the route of the 1972 civil rights march, from the Creggan through the Brandywell and into the Bogside, where a rally was held at Free Derry Corner.

John Kelly, a spokesman for the relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims, told the rally that this month’s jailing of a local man who had refused to give evidence to the inquiry, stating he wasn’t there, was “an absolute perversion of justice”.

Martin “Ducksie” Doherty was jailed for six months by the High Court in Belfast for being in contempt of the inquiry.

Mr Doherty maintains he has nothing to offer the inquiry as he was not there on the day and now he has been imprisoned for not testifying about events he knows nothing about.

He is the only person to be jailed as a result of Bloody Sunday.

FINAL WITNESS

Yesterday’s march took place two days after the final witness gave evidence to the Saville inquiry into the Bloody Sunday killings in a special sitting in London.

The witness, known as Witness X who was unable to give his evidence last January due to illness, described an alleged confession by him in which he admitted to the RUC in 1972 that he had opened fire at British soldiers on Bloody Sunday, as “a pack of lies” and “total and absolute rubbish”.

In the RUC interview note, he was recorded as saying he was an IRA member on Bloody Sunday and he had fired at paratroopers as part of a joint operation carried out by both the Provisional and Official IRA.

It recorded him as saying: “I was also in action on Bloody Sunday at Rossville Street. On Bloody Sunday I was using a carbine. It was a joint operation. I was firing from Glenfada. I used two full magazines. I had four mags altogether.”

However, he said he did not attend the march and he had “absolutely no knowledge of this interview nor the contents of the note”.

After Bloody Sunday he was arrested and asked by police about his movements but he was released without charge, he said.

“I have never been a member of the Provisional IRA or the Official IRA and have never been arrested or charged with terrorist offences.

“I agree it is an interview note but the RUC put my name on it. I know nothing about this document,” he added.

The inquiry has heard from a total of 922 witnesses. The tribunal is expected to submit its final report to the British Government this summer.

Urgent Appeal