Bloody Sunday

In what way was the troubles British made ? the catholics wanted Northern Ireland to join the Republic but the protestants didn't want that happening and wanted to remain under British rule.

 

Story published 19th may 2002. But don't let the truth get in the way of justice The IRA has officially claimed a Bloody Sunday victim as one of its fallen volunteers - contradicting the idea that all 13 men shot dead by British paratroops were uninvolved civilians. A book of republican dead, a 368-page tribute to every IRA member to die in Northern Ireland's Troubles, also includes several men, shot dead by loyalists, who at the time of their murders were claimed by their families to be ordinary Catholics. The book, meant to be seen only by the relatives of the IRA dead, claims that the 1993 Shankill bomb, which killed nine Protestants, including two children, was not a sectarian act. The Observer has obtained a copy of Tirghra - Irish for 'Love of Country' - a book that was distributed during a tribute in Dublin last month to all IRA members killed since 1969. Among those honoured as the IRA's fallen is Gerard Donaghy, described in the book as a 'fian', a member of the junior IRA in Derry. Donaghy was 17 when he was shot dead in Derry by the Parachute Regiment on 30 January, 1972. The four-paragraph salute to Donaghy reveals that he attended IRA training camps in the South and raised funds for the nationalist community in the North. The circumstances surrounding Donaghy's death were among the most hotly contested following Bloody Sunday. The Army and the RUC alleged that nail bombs had been found beside him after he was shot. The first inquiry into Bloody Sunday, chaired by Lord Widgery, agreed with the military. However, his family and campaigners for the Bloody Sunday victims claim that the nail bombs were planted by troops in order to blacken the dead men's names and provide an excuse for the massacre. Other portraits of dead IRA volunteers in Tirghra also contradict claims that several of the victims of loyalist terrorism were not involved in the IRA. They include Danny Cassidy, a 40-year-old Sinn Fein election worker shot dead by the UDA in Co Derry on 2 April, 1992. In the book Lost Lives, the definitive index of all the Ulster Troubles' dead, the authors mark Cassidy as a Catholic civilian. It quotes a priest at his funeral who said: '[Cassidy] was killed simply because he was a Catholic. But in Tirghra Cassidy is referred to as an 'oglach' - the Irish word for soldier and thus a Provisional IRA volunteer. In 1991 the UDA shot dead Padraig O'Seanachain, another Sinn Fein election worker in Co Tyrone. At O'Seanachain's funeral, the parish priest denounced UDA claims that the murdered man was an IRA member. However, O'Seanachain, whose murder is the subject of demands for a public inquiry following claims of security force collusion in the killing, is also described as an 'oglach'. Among several other victims of loyalist violence whose families and Sinn Fein denied had IRA involvement was Alan Lundy, 39, who was shot dead in West Belfast on 1 May, 1993. He is also described in Tirghra as 'oglach'. The admission, many years after Sinn Fein activists were murdered, that they were also IRA members suggests two things: first, that loyalist paramilitaries had more accurate intelligence on IRA personnel than imagined (most of it from security forces' members) and, second, there was a policy to distance some victims of loyalist terrorism from the IRA. The tribute to the Shankill bomber, Thomas 'Bootsy' Begley, who died in the explosion along with nine Protestants in 1993, is sure to cause offence in the wider unionist community. Tirghra claims there was 'misrepresentation in many quarters of a young man who went out, not to commit a sectarian act', but instead to defend his community and country from oppression. Some 400 hardback copies of Tirghra were handed out to relatives of the IRA members who died during the Troubles during a gala evening in Dublin's Citywest hotel, organised by the IRA army council and attended by Sinn Fein leaders, including Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.

 

My post did mention that Donaghy was a member of the IRA youth and the mystery over the nail bombs . It was documented in both inquiries of the event,

• Gerard Donaghy, age 17. Shot in the stomach at Abbey Park while standing behind Gerard McKinney. Both were apparently struck by the same bullet. Bystanders brought Donaghy to a nearby house, where he was examined by a doctor. The doctor opened Donaghy's clothes to examine him, and his pockets were also searched for identification. Two bystanders then attempted to drive Donaghy to hospital, but the car was stopped at an Army checkpoint. They were ordered to leave the car and a soldier drove it to a Regimental Aid Post, where an Army medical officer pronounced Donaghy dead. Shortly after, soldiers found four nail bombs in his pockets. The civilians who searched him, the soldier who drove him to the Army post, and the Army medical officer, all said that they did not see any bombs. This led to claims that soldiers planted the bombs on Donaghy to justify the killings. Donaghy was a member of Fianna Éireann, an IRA-linked republican youth movement. Paddy Ward, a police informer] who gave evidence at the Saville Inquiry, claimed he gave two nail bombs to Donaghy several hours before he was shot. The Saville Report concluded that the bombs were probably in Donaghy's pockets when he was shot. However, it concluded that he was not about to throw a bomb when he was shot; and that he was not shot because he had bombs. "He was shot while trying to escape from the soldiers".

 

After all this time you would hope that an amnesty for all would be possible. Human nature always dictates otherwise.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-47938218

I wish no ill of this soldier but closure for the victims family is more important. Hopefully it'll end in a token sentence & the end of it all.

I'd say the same about the Birmingham pub bombings too.

 

Probably end up like the Hillsborough trial from this year

 

Does that involve closure for the families of the 763 soldiers murdered who are waiting still?
Seems closure is only one way with the terrorists having been given amnesty and the soldiers prosecuted,