Statement issued by the Bloody Sunday families to mark the 52nd anniversary of Bloody Sunday. The statement was read by Gerry Duddy (pictured below), brother of Jackie Duddy, at the annual memorial service on Sunday 28 January. The 2024 commemoration of Bloody Sunday was dedicated to all who are suffering in Palestine.
On behalf of the families of the men and boys murdered on Bloody Sunday, and those wounded, I would like to welcome you all here today as we mark the 52nd anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
As we gather this year you will all know that the case against Soldier F is proceeding. We are waiting for his arraignment, which will hopefully give us a date for the start of the murder trial.
F murdered five of our family members on Bloody Sunday, though he has only been charged with two murders and the wounding of five others.
This is a disgrace, but at least he has been charged and we all hope that a conviction for the Wray and McKinney families will be a conviction for us all.
We will not give up on this.
We must see at least some justice for Bloody Sunday, even while the other murderers from that day, and those who gave the orders for murder, and the political cover for murder, walk free.
You will all also know of the passing of the British government’s shameful Legacy Act. While this act should not affect us, we remain acutely aware of all of the other families that this terrible Act robs of access to truth and justice.
This Act has been passed to prevent proper investigation of British crimes here.
It has been passed because so many of the recent investigations and inquests into state violence were getting to the truth.
They were highlighting British murders here and showing their claim to be a peacekeeping force up to be the lie that it always was.
We stand with all the families who will be affected by this Act, and we stand with all those who are fighting against it. There must be proper investigations. There must be access to truth and justice.
This year as we remember Bloody Sunday, we do so in the dark shadow of a genocide being carried out against innocent people in another part of the world.
We know that over 25,000 people have been killed in Palestine. More than 10,000 of them children.
This is happening in the full view of the world’s politician’s and media. It is a genocide being carried out in plain sight.
It must be condemned. It must be stopped.
It must be treated as the war crime that it is and those responsible must be brought to justice.
There must be no form of international Legacy Act or some other rubbish excuse to cover the war crimes committed by the Israeli army and government.
Let me quote some of the words used by Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh when she stood on behalf of Palestine in the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Gaza has become a place of death and despair…
On average 247 Palestinians are being killed each day…they include 48 mothers each day…over 117 children each day…
Each day 629 people will be wounded, some multiple times over…each day over 10 Palestinian children will have one or both legs amputated, many without anaesthetic…
Entire multi-generational families will be obliterated…
Yet more Palestinian children will become WCNSF – Wounded Child, No Surviving Family – the terrible new acronym borne out of Israel’s genocidal assault on the Palestinian population in Gaza…
…the first genocide in history where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in real time in the desperate – so far vain – hope that the world might do something.”
Blinne helped us during the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, she is our friend, and we are very proud to have her stand for Palestine.
We are opposed to all killing of civilians in acts of war, be it carried out by Hamas or by the Israeli government.
But Israel has been waging a war against the Palestinian people for over seven decades through ethnic cleansing, occupation, apartheid and a brutal siege on Gaza.
Any international response that fails to acknowledge this reality just serves to further dehumanise the Palestinian people and deny them the justice, peace, and equality that they are entitled to.
We call on all governments to work towards a just and lasting solution which will provide long-term peace, security and quality of life for Palestinians and Israelis by ending the injustices imposed on the Palestinian population.
The 2024 commemoration of Bloody Sunday is dedicated to those who are suffering in Palestine.
One world, one struggle, until all are free.
Before we finish I would like us all to remember those we have lost this past year, who we wish were here with us today.
Owen McDaid, the brother of Michael McDaid, Margret Wray, the sister of Jim Wray, Alex Curran, the brother-in-law of William Nash, Ann Mulhern, the sister of William McKinney, Maggie Nash, sister of William Nash and Maura Young, the sister of John Young.
In their memory, and in the memory of all we have lost, WE SHALL OVERCOME.
