All are welcome here to the Irish Center for the Derry Society’s annual Bloody Sunday Remembrance Mass on Sunday, January 26, 2025 at 2 pm.

January 30, 1972 – Bloody Sunday- the day when the British Army’s Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights demonstrators in Derry, Northern Ireland, killing thirteen and injuring another fifteen.

The Widgery Tribunal, established on Jan 31, 1972, largely cleared the soldiers and British authorities of blame, although he described the soldiers’ shooting as “bordering on the reckless”. It was derided as a whitewash by the victims’ families, who spent years campaigning for a fresh public inquiry.

Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that a new inquiry would be held, headed by judge Lord Saville. It was set up in 1998 and reported back in 2010, becoming the longest-running inquiry in British legal history and costing about £200m. The inquiry found that none of the casualties were posing a threat or doing anything that would justify their shooting. It said no warning was given to any civilians before the soldiers opened fire and that none of the soldiers fired in response to attacks by petrol bombers or stone throwers.