Skip to footer

Former soldier arrested over Northern Ireland's 'Bloody Sunday' killings

The arrest of an ex-soldier Tuesday over the 1972 "Bloody Sunday" killings is the first in a renewed investigation announced by Northern Irish police in 2012. 

|
Michel Laurent/AP Photo/File
A building burns in the bogside district of Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday in February 1972. Thirteen people were shot dead on Jan. 30, 1972 in Londonderry when British paratroopers opened fire on a civil rights protest. On Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015, police in Northern Ireland arrested a 66-year-old former soldier in connection with the killings — the first such detention since the start of a murder investigation three years ago.
  • By Ian Graham Reuters

| BELFAST

A 66-year-old former soldier was arrested on Tuesday in relation to the killing by British soldiers of 13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers in Northern Ireland over 40 years ago, Northern Irish police said on Tuesday.

The arrest is the first in a renewed murder investigation announced by police in 2012 into the "Bloody Sunday" killings in Londonderry, one of the most notorious episodes during 30 years of sectarian violence in the British-ruled province.

The questioning "marked a new phase in the overall investigation which could continue for some time," the officer leading the probe, Detective Chief Inspector Ian Harrison, said in a statement.

Britain's Ministry of Defence said it was aware an ex-soldier had been arrested in connection with the investigation and that it would be inappropriate to comment further.

On Sunday, January 30, 1972, British troops opened fire during an unauthorized march in the Bogside, a nationalist area of Londonderry. They killed 13 people and wounded 14, one of whom died later. The victims were all unarmed Catholics.

A 2010 inquiry – the longest and most expensive in British legal history – concluded that the civilians had been killed without justification and had posed no threat, prompting Prime Minister David Cameron to apologize for the killings.

Soldiers who gave evidence to the inquiry about their involvement did so from behind screens and with a guarantee of anonymity.

The killings changed the course of the violent "Troubles" that erupted in the late 1960s, boosting the Irish Republican Army's violent campaign for Northern Ireland to secede from the United Kingdom and become part of the Republic of Ireland.

A 1998 peace deal, brokered after more than 3,600 had died, has largely ended the conflict that pitted mostly Catholics, who wanted a united Ireland, against Unionists, mostly Protestants, who wanted it to remain part of the United Kingdom.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Former soldier arrested over Northern Ireland's 'Bloody Sunday' killings
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/1110/Former-soldier-arrested-over-Northern-Ireland-s-Bloody-Sunday-killings
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe