Bloody Sunday

and already an annoying Tuesday.

The Bloody Sunday shootings was one of the major flash points of the the Northern Irish Troubles. On January 30th 1972 a group of Catholics staged a march through the Bogside area of LondonDerry to protest against their treatment at the hands a of majority Protestant government. They were met by elite troops from the Royal Parachute Regiment (Paras). The ensuing confrontation left 27 civilians shot of which 13 died. The Paras sustained no casualties.

Since that day endless arguments have raged over what really happened. The initial inquiry known as the Widgery tribunal was a complete cover up yet was unable to find anything other then the actions of the Paras "bordered on the reckless". The Coroners inquest went further and accused the British Army of "sheer unadulterated murder."

As a concession made as part of the Northern Ireland Peace Process then British Prime Minister Tony Blair opened a new inquiry into the incident known as the Saville Inquiry. This quickly became the longest running and most expensive inquiry in British history as the Army and the Crown spent 12 years and £400million saying "no you can't put that bit in." The inquiry has finally concluded today with the Saville report going out to British MP's this morning. Later today relatives of those killed are being given five hours in a room with the report and after that a select group of journalists will be given time to read the report in a controlled environment.

After years of delaying tactics the decision to suddenly release the report was made to inflame the political situation in Northern Ireland in the hope of derailing the peace process. So as far a I'm concerned the paras involved must face justice but it's not worth going back to the days of the troubles.

This afternoon I will mainly running errands that involve buying some parts to fix a TV and trying to find a photocopying shop. I'll be trying to do all this in Croydon so will probably come back empty handed but try not to get into a panic about it.