The Bloody Sunday Inquiry’s zero-sum equation

With the Bloody Sunday Inquiry set to report next Tuesday, and today’s Guardian saying the killings will be “ruled unlawful”, and that the soldiers involved “face prosecution” over the deaths of 14 unarmed civilians, Kevin Meagher, former special adviser to Shaun Woodward, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 2007-2010, gives his thoughts on the inquiry

Next week’s publication of the 5,200-page report of Lord Saville’s Bloody Sunday Inquiry will be a zero-sum event. Either the report apportions blame for the killing by British soldiers of thirteen civil rights marchers on the streets of Derry 38 years ago, or it does not.

There is no third way. So representatives of the soldiers involved will be fuming at being singled out for their failures in being expected to police a de facto civil war; or the families of the dead and injured will be bereft as the ranks of the British establishment close against them once again.

Twenty-seven men were shot by British paratroops while attending an anti-internment march in the centre of Derry on January 30th 1972. Thirteen were killed outright, including seven teenagers. Five of the dead were shot in the back. A 14th man died of his injuries four months later. No soldiers were either shot or injured.

The context to Bloody Sunday is still fought over: The protest march was illegal, but peaceful; with marchers walking the streets to the strains of “We Shall Overcome”. The soldiers maintain they were shot upon first. Eyewitnesses refute this.

Lord Widgery’s slapdash report into the events of the day (he didn’t even interview the hospitalised) is regarded with disdain, but even he found that the soldiers’ actions “bordered on the reckless”.

The legacy of Bloody Sunday has been immense. In the previous three years, 210 people were killed in ‘the troubles’; in the 11 months after Bloody Sunday, 445 people lost their lives, making 1972 the bloodiest year of the entire conflict. The shockwaves toppled the Stormont government in March 1972 and responsibility for running of Northern Ireland transferred to Westminster.

Meanwhile, Bloody Sunday turbo-charged the IRA’s “armed struggle”, radicalising Northern Ireland’s Catholic population in a way that was unthinkable a decade earlier. Throughout the years of the Troubles, the attitude of the British Government was one of sheer indifference. Demurring from Widgery’s findings was said to be a sop to the IRA. However sustained pressure saw Tony Blair establish the Bloody Sunday Inquiry back in 1998.

As we await the final report, the propaganda battle still rages. Nervous representatives of the soldiers involved prefer the inquiry to be referred to as the ‘Saville Inquiry’ rather than, as it is properly titled, the ‘Bloody Sunday Inquiry’.

The families of the dead and injured will be looking to see that their loved ones are fully exonerated and that culpability for their deaths is put at the feet of those responsible. Just before the election, Labour’s Northern Ireland Secretary, Shaun Woodward, confirmed there would be no redactions, raising hopes the report will at last apply the disinfectant of daylight to this issue.

But Saville may well go further. He may go up the chain of command, finding fault with those involved at military planning and political levels, particularly if he agrees that there was a cover-up to blacken the names of the victims.

The truth is that no-one knows exactly what he will come up with. Lord Saville guards his independence fiercely, refusing meetings with Ministers and officials. All this ratchets up the tension. Not only is this the most expensive inquiry in British legal history but it may well be one of the most explosive.

What is clear is that the 15th June will be a painful, forensic reminder of an event that brings shame to both the British political and military establishments. But however painful, the truth of that day deserves to be laid out for all to see; the dead and injured deserve nothing less.