Bloody Sunday deaths ‘unjustifiable’

The Saville Inquiry into the deaths of 14 people shot during a march in Londonderry in 1972 has said British troops were wrong to fire upon protestors.

The prime minister David Cameron has issued an official apology for the deaths.

There has been criticism of the length and cost of the inquiry which was set up in 1998 and has cost millions of pounds.

Some government and military sources have also expressed concern that members of the Parachute Regiment might face prosecution for their actions over 38 years ago.

The report by chairman Lord Saville said that British paratroopers deployed to police a civil rights march in Derry on 30 January 1972 were the first to open fire.

It also said that they had no reason to do so. The report said that Martin McGuinness, then the second in command in Derry Provisional IRA was probably armed with a submachine gun during the march but that he did not fire on the paratroopers. Mr McGuinness is now the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland.

The report is also critical of British troops, some of whom it said gave false evidence to the inquiry, but it dis not find evidence of pre-meditation or a cobver-up of intent to kill.

Twenty-seven men were shot during the events of Bloody Sunday, 13, including seven teenagers. dying that day and the last dying of his injuries four months later.

Before the report was delivered today 10,000 people marched through Londonderry’s Bogside following the route of the march in 1972.

The 60 page summary of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry report is available here.