Soñar: January 2011

Learning His History
© Joe ÓNéill

''The great lie has been laid bare.

The truth has been brought home at last.''

Thousands of people assembled on a bitter cold and windswept day, on the Creggan heights in Derry, for the annual Bloody Sunday march, down to the Bogside, and on to a rally in the Guildhall Square in the city centre.

The atmosphere on this march, the 39th, was unlike all the others. For the first time, the families and supporters of those murdered, terrorised, and traumatised, where celebrating the end of a long campaign for justice. Months earlier on June 15, 2010, on the steps of the Guildhall in Derry, an audience of thousands watched on a video monitor as the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, acknowledged the innocence of the victims of Bloody Sunday.

''No more,'' said the Bloody Sunday Trust, ''will the lies of the British establishment or the whitewash of the Widgery, be repeated to excuse the actions of the British Army on the streets of Derry on the 30th January 1972. What we have always known has been acknowledged and recognised Bloody Sunday was unjustified and unjustifiable.''

''From the lips of the British Prime Minister, the truth has been acknowledged. All those murdered and wounded on Bloody Sunday were innocent. We have always known that. Now the world does as well. All the victims of Bloody Sunday have been exonerated. Their relatives, friends and supporters across the world have been vindicated.''

The statement from the Trust concluded; ''Derry's stubborn refusal to accept the state's lies gave rise to the most remarkable justice campaign in modern Irish history, a campaign that reached a climax on the 15th June 2010, amid joys and emotional scenes in Derry's Guildhall Square. Derided and sneered at for years, told by defeatists to give up any hope of reaching success, the dark and difficult days of campaigning were at last vindicated, when the Bloody Sunday families and wounded announced to the world:

''The great lie has been laid bare.

The truth has been brought home at last.''

Sunday's rally was addressed by speakers; Chair John Kelly, Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin; Mark Durkan SDLP; a representative from the Ballymurphy Massacre Campaign; and Gerry Duddy; a Bloody Sunday relative. World renowned singer Mary Black concluded proceeding at the meeting.