N. Ireland revisits tragic Sunday

Gregory Campbell, a member of Ian Paisley's hard-line, Protestant Democratic Unionist Party, which wants Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, decries what he sees as a "lack of equity about atrocities committed against our community." He says that while media and public attention is focused on Bloody Sunday, "there is no inquiry into other events that occurred around that time, when members of the Protestant community were murdered, allegedly involving the present Minister for Education in Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness" (of Sinn Fein, the Catholic/nationalist party and political wing of the IRA, which wants one, united Ireland.)

Campbell wants an inquiry into McGuinness's past. Written evidence given to the inquiry, quoting an unnamed British secret agent's interview with an unnamed informer placed inside the IRA, claims that McGuinness confessed to firing the first shot on Bloody Sunday.

McGuinness hotly contests the British informer's claim. The Sinn Fein politician made history last year by breaking the IRA code of secrecy and admitting he was the IRA's second-in-command in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday. In a written submission to the Inquiry, however, McGuinness says IRA members on Jan. 30, 1972, were given strict orders not to engage with British forces during the civil rights march. He says that all IRA weapons in the city had been secured in an arms dump - except two guns in case "defensive" action was needed.

Protestant resentment is understandable, says Don Mullan, author of "Eyewitness Bloody Sunday" - a book that uncovered so much evidence that it triggered the inquiry - and co-producer of one of the two recent films about the event. "We showed how the Irish civil rights movement was murdered on Bloody Sunday and how the tragedy handed the initiative over to the men of violence on all sides," Mullan says.

He praises the British government for ordering the inquiry. "It was, unquestionably, a courageous and historic step by [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair."

Britain's Northern Ireland secretary, John Reid, said on the day of the anniversary that it was time people moved on.

But, says Mullan: "We have to share an agreed past if we are to have an agreed future as equals in this peace process." He adds, however, that Northern Ireland may not be ready for a South Africa-style truth commission because there is not yet a political settlement satisfactory to all parties, and because "no one has emerged in Northern Ireland who has the potential for reconciliation or the calibre of Archbishop Desmond Tutu."

Mullan believes that, underneath unionist anger, lies a deeper concern about the lessons Bloody Sunday teaches about the very nature of the Northern Irish state. "The inquiry has set out the political context in which the murders took place. The shootings happened against a backdrop of internment without trial."

The inquiry also holds lessons for other groups of bereaved relatives. Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the August 1998 Omagh bombing, says he wants a public inquiry into police handling of bomb warnings before the explosion and into the subsequent investigation. "We want this sorted out now, while there's still a chance of bringing those responsible to justice," he says.

Page: 1 | 2