Bloody Sunday Families ‘Reclaim their History’ on St Patrick’s Day in London and US

From the Pat Finucance Centre:

Representatives of the Bloody Sunday families will this week leave for London and the US to further highlight the need for urgency and vigilance regarding the long-awaited release of the Saville Report.

John Kelly and Jean Hegarty (sister of Kevin McElhinney) will travel to Washington to coincide with planned events at the Whitehouse and will meet senior US politicians to appraise them of recent developments concerning the imminent release of the Inquiry Report.

John Kelly in a statement said that “We feel that is very important to take our just demands of truth and justice at this time to both Britain and the US. Just hours after our loved ones were mown down on the streets of Derry by the Parachute Regiment, the British Embassy in Washington were able to describe and condemn the dead as gunmen and bombers.

“We cannot allow an open field for the British Government, either officially or unofficially, to stage and manipulate the release of the report for their own ends. While we are confident that our long campaign for truth and justice will be completely vindicated, the next few weeks will be crucial in seeing the hated Widgery Report entirely repudiated.

Reclaiming history in London

Meanwhile several relatives will travel to London on Wednesday, St Patrick’s Day, to ‘reclaim the history of Bloody Sunday’ at 10 Downing Street, the Ministry of Defence and Buckingham Palace as part of the ‘Set The Truth Free’ Campaign. In order to illustrate this, family members will return an original copy of the Widgery Report to 10 Downing Street on St Patrick’s Day, symbolising the end of Widgery’s 38-year tenure as the only official British record of Bloody Sunday. At the MoD the families will return the infamous ‘shot list’ drawn up by former Chief of General Staff of the British Army General Mike Jackson. At Buckingham Palace the families will hand in a list of the dead and injured to remind the British Monarch of the ‘real heroes of Bloody Sunday’. Months after the massacre the Queen decorated Para commander Lt Col Derek Wilford who was awarded an OBE. Tony Doherty said “Wilford was no hero-the dead and the injured were the real heros who went out that day to demand civil rights and ended up as targets for the Paras. Wilford should be stripped of his honour.”
Families also announced that there will be a rally this coming Saturday in Derry-details to be announced later this week.

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