Tony Doherty, Chairperson of the Bloody Sunday Trust, said: on behalf of the Bloody Sunday families and many other families who’ve had loved ones murdered by the British army; there will be no grieving the loss of this man. He knowingly ordered the execution of many innocent people and should have been in the international dock for war crimes.
The British may celebrate his life and so-called achievements as they gaze across the seas at their former empire, now gone. In the same way, the apartheid state of Israel celebrates the lives of their fallen generals as the slaughter innocent people continues day after day. The day of reckoning for others will come too.
As he wreaked havoc in Derry and elsewhere in the 1970s, taking innocent life after innocent life, he thought they had quenched the spirit of freedom. Half a century on, they are barely capable of holding onto their last vestige of empire. For the many families that he tried to destroy, vengeance has become the laughter of our children and grandchildren.
Mike Jackson’s name will sit well in the annals of imperial injustice alongside Widgery, Thatcher and Churchill. There will be no mourning here. We look forward to tearing down his statue.
