On 30 January 1972 soldiers from the British Parachute Regiment opened fire on Irish Catholic civil rights demonstrators in the Bogside district of Londonderry, the second biggest city in Northern Ireland, killing 13 people.
Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service says only one of 17 former British Army soldiers should face trial in connection with the deaths on Bloody Sunday.
Solidarity to the Bloody Sunday families who have been campaigning for truth and justice for over 40 years. #BloodySunday pic.twitter.com/OICU8NsYwT
— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) March 13, 2019
The British government said on Wednesday, 13 March, veterans found guilty of crimes during the Troubles would be eligible for early release under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Northern Ireland minister Karen Bradley was heavily criticized last week when she killings by British security forces and police during The Troubles “were not crimes.”
“They were people acting under orders and under instruction and fulfilling their duties in a dignified and appropriate way,” she told Parliament, infuriating the relatives of victims in many Irish republican communities.
”No British soldier left his barracks with an intention of killing innocent civilians. We were there to protect civilians from the terrorists who preyed upon them. The IRA had no prison camp, the only prison camp they had was the graveyard,” Mr. Barry told Sputnik.
Bloody Sunday was a major turning point during The Troubles and anger at the injustice of it led to hundreds of young Catholics joining the IRA.
The Provisional IRA later broke away from the Official IRA and began a bloody campaign of bombings and assassinations of off-duty police officers and soldiers which only ended in 1994.