Derry’s Bloody Sunday March January 30 2022 – Most Establishment Media Failed to Report It Accurately
Derry’s Bloody Sunday March, January 30 2022 – the 50th Anniversary : Diarmuid Breatnach offers this very perceptive analysis :
YESTERDAY WAS THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BLOODY SUNDAY MASSACRE IN DERRY BY BRITISH TROOPS. WHAT DID THE MEDIA COVER?
Diarmuid Breatnach
In the morning, a couple of hundred gathered for politicians including the Taoiseach (Prime Minister of the Irish State) to attend a memorial at the massacre Monument in Derry.
In mid-afternoon, an estimated 20,000 marched in rain and wind, along the original route of the anti-internment march upon which the British Paratroopers had opened fire in 1972, fatally wounding 14 and injuring many others. Speakers at the rally at the end of the march included two of the original organisers and speakers in 1972: Eamon McCann and Bernadette Devlin (now McAlliskey).
Later, a maximum of 400 attended an event in the Derry Guildhall which figured among others artists of various media.
A trawl of the on-line mass media coverage found only two of those events even mentioned. Which one was excluded? The one attended by 20,000 people following the original route in the wind and rain, being addressed by two of the original organisers 50 years ago.
Isn’t it fortunate that we have a free press, unlike in some countries because, as we are often reminded, you can’t have democracy without a free press.
Here is the visual evidence – a huge march occurred in Derry, established media outlets failed to report it :
Leftist Trainspotters will have a field day identifying the huge variety of people, parties, and campaigning organisations on the march. The eagle-eyed will also notice a major absence : Sinn Féin. That party’s leaders were rubbing shoulders with the “great and good” – such as Fianna Fáil boss Mícheál Martin, various men of God, and some honourable people.
What are the politics behind these startling facts?
The march was the biggest in decades. It was a very big turnout. We can debate telephone numbers. Other observers estimate a turnout lower than the figure of 20,000 offered by Diarmuid Breatnach. For sure, the number of active participants on the march was extremely impressive.
People often overlook the influence they have on the’opposition’ (there is not enough trotskyist and fighting-left analysis 🧐, there is too much repeated dogma). Let us not doubt ourselves. The continuing activism of The Bloody Sunday March Committee (BSMC) required the Bloody Sunday Trust to pull out people with some ‘clout’. The former British Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn issued public declarations strengthening the demands as articulated by BSMC since Saville, when the received wisdom was to now ‘draw a line’ under it all. Corbyn attended many Derry events on the weekend of January 28-30, including a public debate with Éamonn McCann of the BSMC and People Before Profit.
The former Labour leader also condemned the UK government’s proposals to introduce a statute of limitations which would ban future prosecutions for Troubles-era crimes, as well as civil cases and inquests.
Double outrage
Mr Corbyn said it was an “outrage” that nobody has been prosecuted for the deaths on Bloody Sunday and it was a “double outrage that the British government is now planning legislation to make it harder for such an effort to succeed at any time in the future.”
The “forthcoming amnesty bill”, he said, “would shut down all further inquiries into the state’s actions during the Troubles. Such a law … would have prohibited the Saville Inquiry” into Bloody Sunday,” he said.
“Introducing a statute of limitations for atrocities that took place in Ireland amounts to nothing short of complicity in covering up the truth and ensures that the lessons are not fully learnt.”
The bill, he said, would “entrench injustice and actually be an insult to us all,” he said.“
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/uk-government-must-outline-conditions-required-for-border-poll-jeremy-corbyn-1.4789016?localLinksEnabled=false
Derry born Irish soccer international James McClean on the same page as former British Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn.
There is a lot of unfinished business. We leave the last word to Geraldine Doherty :
There is no British Justice.
“Geraldine Doherty holds a picture of her uncle Gerald Donaghey who was shot dead on Bloody Sunday 30th January 1972. As he was being transported to hospital the car was stopped and searched by the army, eye witnesses say that the army planted nail bombs on him at this point because they had already searched him for ID and found nothing on him. The Bloody Sunday Inquiry left a stain on Gerald’s name which Geraldine maintains she won’t rest until it is cleared’.
thereisnobritishjustice #bloodysunday50 “
Thanks to Bernadette McAliskey for the link.
John Meehan February 1 2022
Speeches Song and Music : Kate Nash, Bernadette McAliskey, Vincent Doherty, Éamonn McCann, Clare Daly TD. :
Tomás Ó Flatharta 
If one counts the people lining the route and the marchers themselves I think the 20,000 is a more than fair estimate.
One of the things that struck me was a mother with two small children on the pavement/ sidewalk, bending down to talk to her children and pointing out things among and about the march to them. As I passed her I said “That’s how education begins.” She turned to me beaming and said “Exactly!”
Diarmuid Breatnach
Feb 1, 2022 at 7:29 pm
Reblogged this on seachranaidhe1.
seachranaidhe1
Feb 1, 2022 at 11:32 pm