‘Bloody Sunday’ Victims Are Offered Compensation

A Defense Ministry spokesperson in the British government announced on Thursday, September 22, 2011 that relatives of victims of the 1972 Northern Ireland shootings by British troops, that became known as “Bloody Sunday," will be compensated.

Some relatives have already rejected the compensation.

A Ministry of Defense spokesperson said, “We acknowledge the pain felt by these families for nearly 40 years, and that members of the armed forces acted wrongly. For that, the government is deeply sorry. We are in contact with the families’ solicitors and where there is a legal liability to pay compensation, we will do so.”

Fourteen people were killed by members of a British parachute regiment as they marched in Londonderry (also referred to as Derry) on Jan. 30, 1972. Thirteen more were wounded.

Prime Minister of Britain David Cameron had already offered an apology in June of 2010, saying that a thorough second investigation concluded after one of the longest and most costly public inquiries ever in Britain, that the Bloody Sunday shootings were “both unjustified and unjustifiable.”

“Bloody Sunday” was a seminal event in the three decades of gurilla war in Northern Ireland that claimed more than 3,600 lives from both traditions in Ireland and beyond.

Sisters Linda and Kate Nash, whose teenage brother William was among 14 innocent and unarmed men who died, stated they wanted no part of monetary compensation, but suggested the Ministry of Defense could set up bursaries (scholarships) with the money.

Victims have spent decades campaigning for justice. They had branded the original investigation into the massacre a whitewash. Now that investigation has been repudiated by the second investigation and the British government is responding with meaningful compensation.

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For an expanded discussion by Reverend Harold Good of reconciliation in Ireland: Click here.

Boston College Resists Subpoena for Confidential Interview Records

Boston College filed a motion resisting a federal subpoena for confidential oral history interviews of paramilitary fighters for the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The motion was filed with the US Attorney's office.

The recordings were made of paramilitary fighters from both cultural traditions on a promise of confidentiality of each interview until the subject person interviewed became deceased.

Boston College argues the release could threaten the :

• safety of those interviewed



• safety of the two former paramilitary members who conducted the interviews



• safety of other Boston College staffers



• viability of other oral history projects



• the ongoing peace process in Northern Ireland

The recordings are held in the Boston College library and were used in the efforts of the Center for Irish Programs. The site of the program at Boston College was chosen in March, approximately three months ago, to hold the archive of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning. A site in the United States was seen as a compromise given chosing a university in Belfast or Dublin would carry a potentially negative association for one or the other cultural traditions in Ireland. The records of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning were supposed to be sealed for thirty years.

The court order seeking the records is sealed so the public and Boston College do not know which British agency is requesting them.

While the concerns of Boston College are well expressed, a basis under the United States constitution for resisting the subpoena does not appear to be articulated in the description of the filed documents resisting the subpoena.

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More About the Peace Process

Earlier Post on the Subpoena