00:00We're here tonight just to mark the occasion of British injustice. You probably all heard the news yesterday and what happened.
00:11And my feelings about it was I wasn't actually shocked, wasn't surprised, expected that of course.
00:22I knew a soldier was never going to be put in jail. I know there were other family members that were very, very sad about it and disappointed.
00:33But I'm afraid I sort of gave up on that a couple of years back.
00:38But it doesn't stop us carrying on with the march because I know that's the one thing they hate.
00:45That's the one thing that they want us to stop. So we can keep that going. We can keep that going as long as people feel it needs to keep going.
00:58I hope it's 100 years. But anyway, we have some of the families here tonight. I'm so glad they're here.
01:05And some of them want to speak. So can I invite Gerardine Doherty?
01:12Gerardine is the niece of Gerard Donaghy, one of the youngest child, really, who was murdered on Bloody Sunday.
01:21Could you come forward, Gerardine? Thank you.
01:24I stand here as a niece of Gerard Donaghy and the Doherty family.
01:43Gerard was the only person who was not exonerated by the Savile Enquirer.
01:51Savile ruled that he could not dismiss the possibility that Gerard was carrying four nail bombs when he was shot by the parachute regiment.
02:05Yet no nail bombs were thrown that day.
02:10A doctor, a nurse and then an army medic all examined Gerard and stated that he was completely unarmed.
02:20His body was taken through army checkpoints and searched. No nail bombs were found.
02:29I didn't have any hope of Soldier F being found guilty.
02:40I do have hope that we can still exonerate my uncle. I do have hope that by marching, campaigning and refusing to accept Savile as the end of the matter, we can continue to show up the British state for their actions in sending in the parachute regiment to murder our loved ones.
03:07Thank you for the chance to speak. The fight for justice continues. Thank you to everyone.
03:14Good evening everybody on this song. Pleasant night. But it's pleasant night when I see so many people out here. What happened yesterday, we know it was this. I don't really take you through the story of bloody Sunday. You always know it.
03:23On behalf of our family, and I'm saying about the family, all the families of bloody Sunday, even though lots of people thought it was a failure yesterday, there was a great success there as well.
03:38You look at the comments of the judge, and when he made it plain and clear, our relatives were mercilessly shot down in the streets by a crowd of thugs who came in here.
03:45And it wasn't just to trigger men who were responsible. When we went through all these years, it's not, and I hear a lot of people say that great resistance and effort is a continuation of our families.
03:52We only got here because of the Derry people. We only got here because of the Derry people. Because of the Derry people.
03:59You won't let the lies be told and continues. It was your support that gave us the strength to carry on.
04:06And you were just standing in the streets by a crowd of thugs who came in here. And it wasn't just the trigger men who were responsible.
04:11When we went through all these years, it's not, and I hear a lot of people say that great resistance and effort is a continuation of our families.
04:16We only got here because of you, because of the Derry people. Because you won't let the lies be told and continues.
04:24It was your support that gave us the strength to carry on. And we could never, ever thank you in words or actions enough for your support.
04:34What I say now is, best marks each year. We mightn't get the justice from the hands of the oppressor.
04:41But we may be on the streets to tell them, we ain't gone away, you know. We're gonna watch you, we're gonna carry on, we're gonna fight you.
04:49Support the people! Three past nine!
04:56It's very exciting, you're familiar.
05:00Amen!
05:01Floor!
05:02What?
05:03Floor!
05:04Somebody just told me that nobody can hear. So, I may be wrong, but I think a couple of people can hear me sort of through the mic now.
05:17Just let me say, it's been a privilege over the years to be associated with the Bloody Sunday families and to keep this campaign going.
05:24I can remember a couple of days after Bloody Sunday, in fact in the morning after Bloody Sunday, standing in the lee of the Roswell Flats down there,
05:32with my old friend, the late Dermy McClanahan. And you've never seen this area so quiet.
05:38It was actually deathly quiet, as was the Kraken on the night before, the night after the shooting.
05:44As people shuffled around, as Irish people do, from one house to another, to, you know, to convey their sympathies and to talk to the relatives of the dead and try to give them some solace.
05:57But I remember I was standing down there, sort of, in the morning afterwards, and you've never heard, I know it was in the morning, but you never heard this town quieter.
06:06You never heard it. You could hear people breathe. People were whispering to one another, even though we were standing, sort of, in the public street.
06:15And Dermy, I remember, said to me, Eamon, we're not going to let them get away with this, are we?
06:21You know, and that is the attitude that will be taken by relatives and supporters and everybody else ever since.
06:26We're not going to let them get away with this, because we'd be demeaning ourselves.
06:30We would be belittling the loss of the victims of Bloody Sunday if we let them get away with it.
06:37Now, it's taken a long turn, taken a long road from there to here.
06:41And the fact of the matter is that, sadly, the road isn't over yet. We're going to have to keep going.
06:49We have had a number of occasions, sort of, over those last 52, 53 years, when politicians and a lot of other people declared that the Bloody Sunday campaign was over,
07:01that there was nothing more to march about, sort of, and nothing more to achieve.
07:05When the Saffil inquiry was set up, indeed, long before that, there were people standing up representing this area in the House of Commons,
07:13and thanking the authorities for having settled the Bloody Sunday issue once and for all.
07:18We had that, again, sort of, with the Saffil, sort of, inquiry.
07:22We had it when John Major, sort of, made a sort of half-hearted apology on behalf of the British establishment,
07:27and a lot of people were saying, including very prominent people, of whom we might have expected better,
07:32they're saying, at long last, justice and the truth has been raised.
07:35The truth has not been grabbed at.
07:37And the British establishment, the British ruling class, will fight to keep the truth from coming out into the open.
07:43They'll fight for another 53 years, if they have to.
07:46Because to the British ruling class, what happened in Bloody Sunday is something they must forget.
07:51It's something that they cannot allow to be factored in, to the reputation of the British state and the British army around the world.
08:00And one of the things the Bloody Sunday relatives have done,
08:03sort of, Liam, sort of, and Geraldine, and Kate, sort of, and all the rest.
08:08And one of the things that they have done, which has been an inspiration, literally, to the world,
08:13is to refuse to let the murder of the imperialists, of our people, to go down.
08:21To go down to no more inquiries and no more frustrations about it.
08:25That's not going to happen.
08:26One of the most interesting parallels with Bloody Sunday that I've seen,
08:30were people from Kenya, who more than 52 years ago, from the 1950s,
08:35people who had been murdered in Kenya by British troops,
08:40sort of, in the pursuit of the Land and Freedom Army,
08:44which was called, in the British press, of Morimoy.
08:46You know, the Land and Freedom Army.
08:48There were people tortured there.
08:50Loads of people tortured there.
08:51In Afghanistan, in Iraq, they've been tortured, of the most appalling nature,
08:56against communities which are regarded by the British, or the Americans, or whoever,
09:01as enemy communities, as communities which weren't going to go along with what they have said.
09:07So I think we should, I think that it'd be wrong to say that people,
09:11that their relatives are attached to you a pat on the back,
09:14although there's that too, for what they have brought.
09:16But also, they have to be thanked by the example that they have given.
09:20You know, and the reason why I mentioned the Morimoy in Kenya is that when they were in court,
09:25they didn't go anywhere, but the Labour Court, sort of, in Britain,
09:28they specifically thanked the Bloody Sunday families of Derry,
09:31for giving them, sort of, encouragement.
09:33From Africa, you know, to anywhere in the world and mention Bloody Sunday,
09:37walks among the Palestinians, as some of us have, sort of, in the refugee camps in Lebanon,
09:43and some of them, the only thing they know about Ireland,
09:46the only thing they know when you say you're from Derry,
09:48ah, yes, Bloody Sunday, that's serious.
09:51They know it, the world knows it, sort of, and it's through, sort of, the efforts of people,
09:56like the sort of people who are gathered around here today,
09:58sort of, and soon enough there, children and grandchildren,
10:02it's through that effort that the truth will eventually come out.
10:06And they, as it may not be true, the old slogan,
10:09may not be true that the truth shall set you free.
10:12Takes a wee bit more than that.
10:13But it's certainly the fact that without the truth, we will never be free.
10:18In the town of Bloody Sunday, Derry will never be free from its past.
10:22So when we're talking about Bloody Sunday and the need for the truth,
10:25we're talking about ourselves.
10:27We're talking about the people of Derry.
10:28We're talking about the people of Derry.
10:29We're talking about the people of Ireland,
10:30and Kenya, and various other places,
10:32where people are killed by imperialist powers and of no recourse.
10:36And their killers expect the matter to die away.
10:40They can get away with that impunity.
10:42One of the things that has happened in this town,
10:44and Derry should be extremely proud of this.
10:46And that we have shown that we'll not let it go away.
10:50That 52 years, a litter of 102 years ago,
10:53however long it takes, however long it takes,
10:56we will screw the truth out of them.
10:58Because the truth is devastating to them,
11:00but actually, it fulfills our vindication.
11:03Thank you very much.
11:05Because yesterday was a devastating day for a lot of these families,
11:11even though we may have known what was going to happen.
11:15But we want to thank you,
11:17the support we've always received from Derry,
11:19and please keep giving that support.
11:22It means so much.
11:24It really does.
11:25It really does.
11:26I'll see you all on the 1st of February at Creighton.
11:30Thank you very much.
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