I listened with interest to David Cameron's perfectly pitched speech on the findings of the Saville Report.(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/10320609.stm)
The events of Bloody Sunday,where 13 civilians were shot dead during a civil rights demonstration was a terrible, terrible mistake on behalf of the British Army, and it is with sadness that we realise that only after 38 years will the families and friends of those killed will get some closure on the events of January 1972.
I grew up in the seventies and even as a child the fear of what was effectively a civil war in Ireland was, to me, very real. The IRA brought their struggle and fight to the mainland with an indiscriminate and murderous bombing campaign and even though the killings on Bloody Sunday cannot be excused in any way, I think they must be viewed within the context of what was essentially a war (I always, even as a child thought the term "the troubles" as the conflict in Ireland was always referred to, was an awfully impotent phrase),
It has been reported that the IRA alone killed 1,110 British security forces and over 630 civilians during the "troubles", and while we should mourn and apologise for the awful killings on Bloody Sunday, the thousands of "other" innocent dead should also be remembered.
(pic Paul Greengrass' movie Bloody Sunday 2001)
Well said & very well written...xxx
ReplyDeleteWell said, John.
ReplyDeleteI think every country under the sun has at least one such event that is forever remembered in shame.
Amen to that!
ReplyDeleteSince it was a war, any numbers on the casualties on the other side?
ReplyDeleteYes, it must be a relief to have all that under control. 'Over here',it was in the news all the time and we saw it as sectarian violence...but I'm sure it was more involoved than that.
Thanks for the enlightenment...we in North America can tend to forget these things...so selfish!
ReplyDeleteCheers, for that!
ReplyDeleteOut here, in Australia, we have hardly experienced one ounce of the kind of social tragedies, such as Bloody Sunday, that many other parts of the world experience. In our remoteness and very differing cultural heritage we, Australians, are sometimes innured to the terrible impacts that many countries experience on an almost daily basis.
Its refreshing to be reappraised as to just how lucky we really are in Australia.