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PA & Shaun Keenan

Bloody Sunday: Relatives of victims' tell of their 'justice fight' 50 years after one of Northern Ireland's darkest day

The families of those killed on Bloody Sunday have told how they will continue to fight for justice "until their final breath" 50 years after Derry's darkest day.

On January 30, 1972, thousands of men, women and children took to the streets of Derry in an atmosphere of heightened tensions - but also hope.

The march had been organised over a new law that had been introduced to detain people without trial indefinitely - otherwise known as internment.

Later that day, Derry had changed forever, and with it so had Northern Ireland when British soldiers first began opening fire on Rossville flats at 4.10pm.

It resulted in the deaths of 13 innocent people with a fourteenth person later dying as a result of their injuries.

Some 21 soldiers fired 108 live rounds over the course of a day - which also left a further 15 people injured.

The British Army claimed it came under fire, allegedly from the Provisional IRA, in the Rossville Flats area.

Witnesses insist none of those killed were armed.

A mother's grief

One of those shot and killed on that day was Jim Wray, who was 22-years-old and had been due to get married after being engaged.

His sister Margaret Wray told of how her mother, stricken by grief, could not accept that her son had been killed.

Describing her account of that day, Margaret said: "We all woke up that morning and there was an excitement around the place because we had all been told we would be going on the march.

"So we got up and we had our breakfast and our mother all made us go to 12'o'clock mass, every last one of us.

"When we got back, everyone was anxious to get out to the march, I couldn't go, but my mammy and daddy, Jim, Liam and a few of my sisters went.

"It was a beautiful January day because the sun was shining and there was a carnival atmosphere about it all.

"Once the march has passed me, I went back home and went up to make the tea for them all coming back, which was the normal thing to do.

"That's when things took a turn. People started running into our house shouting that murder had been going on in the Bogside.

"I don't know how long elapsed but people started to debate whether the army was using live bullets or rubber bullets. That's when word reached us that people were dead.

"That's when my mammy asked me to check if all our family was in the house and for me to do a headcount. Jim wasn't there.

"My mammy her started to get anxious and annoyed. My father and my brother Liam said they would go and look for him. They came back and hadn't found him but hoped that he might have been arrested.

“Shortly after that, we were told Jim was one of the fatalities by two first aiders who had come to the door.

"I knew by the look on my father's face and I never heard my mother let out a scream like it.

"My home went from chaos to total silence."

People began roaring and screaming

Mickey McKinney, brother of Kevin McKinney who was killed on Bloody Sunday (Liam McBurney/PA)

Mickey McKinney, the brother of William McKinney, said he first realised something wasn't right when the army moved into what was known then as "no-go area" of the Bogside.

William was a keen amateur photographer and he had set out to film the Bloody Sunday march on a camera he had received as a Christmas present.

The oldest of 10 children - and a local printer for the Derry Journal - William was killed as he ran for cover.

"I have no memory of hearing any shots but I remember the panic," Mickey said. "People had begun roaring and screaming, scrambling to take cover."

"I needed to take cover as well because the army had begun to fire gas and because of the effects of the gas I decided, along with my wife now, that should go to an aunt's house which wasn't that far.

"And as the army moved in, I remember thinking to myself that this was different because they had never come in that far before. At that time, certain areas were no-go for the army and this was one of them.

"When I got into the aunt's house everything just seemed to go crazy. I didn't know what was happening and I didn't know who had been shot.

"When things did eventually calm down, I left and went back to Creggan and we went to evening mass. When mass had finished I remember seeing Father Joe's car close to my home.

"One day before the Sunday, two people from our street had been shot in William Street and I thought they had maybe taken a turn for the worse.

"That's when I got into the house. It was completely packed and my father approached me and told me that Willie was dead.

"I collapsed to my knees and started to cry.

"After that, there was a terrible void. He was my older brother, the oldest of any of us.

"He was a good person, a good person to be around, and very light-hearted. He looked out for us and was fun.

"There was just an emptiness.

"And since that day, the way we have been treated by the legal system is really insulting."

Guilt

Jean Hegarty was living in Canada when her 17-year-old brother Kevin McElhinney was shot dead on Bloody Sunday.

She spoke of how she still experiences guilt because of the years it took her to discover the truth about how her brother died.

Ms Hegarty had emigrated to Canada in 1968 after getting married and was there when she first saw reports about Bloody Sunday on the news.

She said that early reports suggested the victims were gunmen and it was only years later that she learned the full truth that the unarmed grocery store worker was shot from behind as he crawled towards Rossville Flats.

Jean said: “I was then woken at 5am with a phone call. When the phone rang at that time in the morning you knew there was something wrong.

“I just couldn’t understand. Kevin was dead; gunmen and bombers? I couldn’t connect the two at all. It was very, very confusing.”

“I arrived here on the Tuesday morning. When I got home I was told of course he wasn’t involved in anything.”

Ms Hegarty later returned to live in Derry again and became involved in the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign.

“That was a whole learning experience for me,” she said.

“Physically I never knew where the bullet entered his body and exited it, so I found that out.

“I learned that Kevin went to the march with a new pair of boots and he was anxious to get home because my daddy was going to take him on a driving lesson that afternoon.

“He was killed while crawling away from the soldiers. The evidence of that was that the bullet entered his backside and travelled up through his body and up and out through his armpit.

“The evidence was quite clear that he was shot crawling away.

“That made me feel pretty bad because I hadn’t found out at the time, and in truth I had doubts.

“I suppose to this day I have guilt about doubts that I had. The doubts are gone but I still have that guilt about them.”

The negation of justice

Tony Doherty was nine years old when his father Patrick was shot dead on Bloody Sunday.

He keeps memories of that day guarded, choosing to keep them to himself.

Mr Doherty, a married father of six and member of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, was 32 when he was killed.

Tony, who said his father death led to him joining the IRA, is now the chairman of the Bloody Sunday Trust.

"My father was killed by Solider F," Tony said.

"I am not in any way obsessed by this man, I don't think about Solider F because if I did I would remain an angry person.

"There's a distinct possibility that Solider F will never see the inside of a courtroom again. That is an injustice in my book.

"But one of the facts about Bloody Sunday that often escapes people and is taken for granted is that there was no criminal investigation into the fact that 13 people had been killed in Derry that day.

"The police, which was the RUC at the time, decided that they were going to do nothing.

"When you think about it in those terms, justice had been negated from the very outset.

"It's difficult to understand fully but had justice been achieved? Probably not.

"Have the families achieved victories? Of course, they have and they should feel proud that they have come through a very difficult and traumatic process."

The fight will go on

"My mother didn't want Michael to go to the march," said John Kelly.

Michael Kelly was only 17-year-old when he was shot on that fateful day.

He was shot in the stomach near a barricade.

The Derry man died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.

His brother John, who now works as a committed campaigner, explained how he narrowly avoided being shot TOO.

"I remember that day very clearly. I remember we had gathered in Creggan and I went and I spoke with Michael and told him to be careful because he had never been on a march before.

"He asked my mother to allow him to go to the march but she wouldn't initially allow him to go.

"However, when his friends and my sisters were going my mother eventually gave in and allowed him to go.

"I met him for the last time at the start of the march.

"There is footage of Michael at the very front of the march, which shows you how naive he was and how excited he was about attending. He is filmed standing next to Ivan Cooper

"When the shooting started, there was a scramble. I ran to take cover in Rossville Street and two bullets passed my head. I heard them as they passed.

“Then there was a lull in the shooting. We looked across the street and saw a group of people so we decided to come back into the area. As we did so, two bullets passed in front of us. They started to shoot from the Derry walls.

“As we stood watching I heard a call from behind me from a brother-in-law and he told me Michael had been shot.

“I helped to carry Michael and put him in the ambulance. He was taken to the hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.”

Mr Kelly said the soldier responsible for his death is a murderer who should already be in jail. He vowed to continue the campaign to see the soldier 'brought to justice.

He added: "50 years of my brother's life has been taken from him and it has been taken from us.

"He was going steady at the time and he would've had a family at some point. All of those things were lost.

"It's certainly important that this guy and all others who fired shots that day and killed people should be prosecuted and go to jail.

"This campaign had three demands. The first one was a full declaration of innocence of our people. The second one was the repudiation of the Widgery Inquiry and the third one of the prosecution of the soldiers.

"Through the second inquiry, we have achieved two of them and we will continue to fight for justice for them."

Video by Harry Bateman

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