BY MARCELLA FITZGERALD AND CELIA PUGH
DERRY, northern Ireland - "You are a heart-warming sight," Martin McGuinness told a crowd of 40,000 marchers at Free Derry corner here on Sunday, February 2. "I have never seen such a demonstration in this city in my life!" The march was the culmination of four days of events to mark the 25th anniversary of the massacre by British Paratroopers of 14 unarmed civil rights demonstrators on Jan. 30, 1972. McGuinness, who spoke as a Derryman who was at the 1972 march, is a leader of Sinn Fein, the nationalist party fighting for a united Ireland free of British domination. He and other speakers called for an international inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday, as the day is known here.

Thousands of people from the working-class Catholic neighborhoods of the Creggan and Bogside joined contingents from throughout the British-occupied northern six counties, several contingents from the south of Ireland, a delegation from London, and others from as far as the United States, Sweden, and the Basque country. Hundreds more joined as the march - led by the relatives of those killed - passed their houses. Many marchers filed in behind their local pipe band. Though all generations participated, young people predominated.

The mood was one of confidence and determination. The aim was an inquiry that would finally tell the truth about what the British troops did and smash the official report by British judge Lord Widgery that exonerated the killers, who were later decorated by Queen Elizabeth Windsor.

Michael McKinney, brother of William McKinney, one of those killed in 1972, addressed the crowd. He referred to the sad ness of the occasion but said that this was outweighed by the fact that "we're here with people who are not afraid and who refuse to forget." Speaking of Patrick Mayhew, the British minister responsible for Northern Ireland, McKinney said, "While he and his government continue to spew the lies of Widgery, he has no right to lecture Irish people about democracy, about justice, and about the creation of a more equal society."

The wife of Damien Sullivan, who was framed up on charges of killing a soldier and sentenced to life in 1996 in the juryless "Diplock" courts, also appealed for support. The only "evidence" presented against Sullivan was a video still that the cops failed to identify at the time.

McGuinness described the heroism of the people of Derry as they sought to save those shot, and gave examples of how state murder continued to this day. He also spoke of the suffering of many families, including Protestants and people in London, as a result of British rule in Ireland.

Factory workers commemorate killings
Tommy McLaughlin, who was at the demonstration with several friends, told these reporters about what had gone on in several local factories the preceding week when many Catholic workers wore a black ribbon to commemorate the dead of Bloody Sunday. He reported that management at the Fruit of the Loom plant, where the majority of workers are Catholic, refused to turn off the radio during a two-minute silence to mark the time of the killing, and later sent home without pay those who had participated. McLaughlin thought that many of the Protestant workers did not object to the commemoration but would not come forward to show support for the Catholics.

Similar things happened in other workplaces. At Desmonds, a shirt factory where the majority of workers are Protestant, the local paper reported that a loyalist gang attacked Catholic workers on their way home after they marked the two-minute silence. Some workers said they had abuse screamed at them during their commemoration. Similarly, Catholic workers were locked out by management at Coats Viyella in Trench Road after holding a two-minute silence in the canteen.

At a 400-strong meeting January 31, Jimmy Porter presented tapes to the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign to be used as evidence for a new inquiry. These recordings of army communications were taken secretly with special listening equipment on Bloody Sunday. They were submitted and rejected as evidence at the official Widgery inquiry in 1972. Porter told the meeting "I taped murder only to be told that taping murder was illegal and could not be admitted as evidence."

The tapes' contents appear in a new book, Eyewitness Bloody Sunday by Don Mullan, which contains eyewitness and forensic evidence of the British army shootings of the unarmed demonstrators. The tapes confirm that army snipers fired from above the demonstration on the Derry walls.

Speaking at the meeting, Mullan noted that "confidence in the authorities has been shaken by the turnaround at Drumcree and the complicity of the same authorities in the cover up." Last summer at Drumcree, a Catholic neighborhood in Portadown, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and British army opened the way for loyalist thugs to attack the Catholic community. This was widely reported and condemned around the world. The event was a reaction to an upturn in the fight against rightist parades through nationalist neighborhoods. Coverage of it exposed British violence in the northern Ireland statelet and dealt a political blow to London.

Pressure on London increases
Accepting the tapes on behalf of the Justice Campaign, John Kelly said, "With these tapes, Don Mullan's book, and the forensic evidence we've got the British government on the run."

One indication of the growing pressure on London was an editorial on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday in the Belfast News Letter, the main unionist (pro-British) paper in the north. The editors described the massacre as "an appalling over-reaction" by the troops and stated, "Those who lost innocent loved ones deserve nothing less than a heartfelt, unambiguous apology from the highest possible source."

Irish prime minister John Bruton said he will call on the British government to investigate recent allegations. Calls for a new inquiry into the Bloody Sunday killings have been made by SDLP leader John Hume, 60 members of the British Parliament, and retired Bishop of Derry Edward Daly.

The British government has so far rejected these calls. The Northern Ireland Office said, "The events of January 1972 were fully investigated by the Widgery tribunal. There are no plans to set up a further inquiry." A spokesperson for Labour Party Shadow Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam also rejected calls for an inquiry, saying "Our main aim is not to relive the past but rather to build for the future."

In another feeble attempt to discredit opponents of British rule in Ireland, London continues to play up the statements of Sean O'Callaghan, who for years served as a cop informer in the Irish Republican Army. This stool- pigeon's latest allegation is that Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams had once considered killing SDLP leader Hume. Adams dismissed the charge, published by London papers the same day as the Derry demonstration, as "total rubbish." Irish government officials have said O'Callaghan's stories are fabrications, as has Irish historian Tim Pat Coogan.

Workshops and eyewitness testimony from Bloody Sunday took place at the Pilot's Row community center February 1, near the site of the massacre. The day concluded with a debate on the question "Who fears peace?" The 500 people attending were encouraged to question a panel that included Hume; Mary Flaherty of the Fine Gael party; Rev. Roy Magee, advertised as "involved in brokering the loyalist cease- fire of 1994;" and Sinn Fein chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin.

One question from the floor challenged Hume to say why he did not endorse having single nationalist candidates in the upcoming general election. This received enthusiastic applause from many in the audience. Hume replied that the SDLP would stand independently and he had to answer constituents who challenged him for "doing deals with those who carry out violence." He said he would only consider the question "if there is a cease-fire and Sinn Fein starts acting like a normal political party."

McLaughlin criticized the exclusive rejection of Sinn Fein from talks with the British government and said that Hume's comments "accept a status quo that discriminates against nationalists." He explained that Sinn Fein is an independent republican party with its own mandate. Sinn Fein will stand its own candidates in the general election.

The Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign can be contacted at Pat Finucane Centre, 1 West End Park, Derry.

Celia Pugh is a member of the Amalgamated Electrical and Engineering Union (AEEU).  
 
 
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