Issue 130, Saoirse: Irish Freedom (February, 1998)

              uimh 130 feabhra february 1998 50p usa 1 after 26 years to aid current process following the slaughter of unin volved nationalist civilians during the past month and after 26 years the british government ann ounced on january 29 that a public inquiry into the bloody sunday massacre would be set up - in the hope of aiding the current process which aims to restructure and modernise british rule in ireland republican sinn fein immediately questioned whether any new inquiry could be truly independent since it is to be chaired by a british judge and the other two members are likely to be mr blair's words from the british commonwealth further questions need to be asked also will the tribunal's remit extend not just to the events on the ground that day but also to the motivation and planning of them even to the highest level it is not good enough that british soldiers be held accountable while policy makers escape respon sibility will the discovery of relevant documents be pursued right through to the top of the british establishment and will these be published for instance will the minutes of the british cabinet sub-committee meeting of january 28 1 972 which included prime minister edward heath and leader of the commons william whitelaw be made bloody sunda inquiry * relatives of the dead of bloody sunday 1972 march in derry on february 1 1998 available for public scrutiny it was at this level that the events of bloody sunday were planned the minutes of this meeting are not in the public records office in london will independent experts be called to give evidence that troops from the royal anglian regiment were shooting down from derry's walls and killed william nash john young and michael mcdaid will the horror inside the horror bishop edward daly's words in glenfada park be examined when people on the ground or with their hands in the air were shot by british paratroopers jim wray was shot dead from point blank range while lying wounded and defenceless on the ground what about the meeting on monday january 3 1 , 1 972 between edward heath lord chancellor hailsham and lord widgery when heath said remember there is a propaganda war as well as a military war in northern ireland similarly will the medical evidence of those killed or injured be made available to the survivors and/or their legal teams before the inquiry it is currently locked away until the year 2047 finally will the inquiry be able to subpoena witnesses and will it hold a public session in derry justice must be done with regards to bloody sunday — and be seen to be done otherwise the new tribunal will be just another public relations exercise designed to placate nationally-minded irish people and further the current endeavour to modernise british rule in ireland slaughter national ballyseedy 75th anniversary co kerry sunday march 8 2.30pm assemble ballingarry house two miles from tralee buses contact martin calligan clare 065 53105 joe lynch limerick 061-311457 with the lvf killing of taxi-driver john mccolgan 28 in belfast on january 24 he became the ninth nationalist victim of the british-backed death squads in eight weeks the catalogue of death having begun with the gunning down of gerry devlin 36 outside st enda's gaa club in north belfast on december 5 all of the victims of the uda/uff and lvf were uninvolved nationalist victims what price the current process now after this campaign of killing was completely ignored by british secretary mo mowlam until the end of january when the udp were temporarily forced out of the talks about a new stormont innocent nationalists were being killed on the streets in their workplaces and homes on a daily basis yet there were no statements of concern or condemnation from the us president or his staff the reaction that would have followed the killing of a similar number of loyalist people can be imagined only too well ordinary nationalists treated with derision the bogus analysis by the establishment media in belfast and dublin that the blood-letting was in revenge for the killing of lvf leader billy wright on december 27 they pointed to the 15 killings during 1997 perpetrated by the loyalists out of a total for the year of 20 the death squads recent nationalist victims stretched back to july 1996 and the assassination of michael mcgoldrick in co armagh during the drumcree crisis the stock-in-trade of the loyalist death squads for the past 200 years and more has been to kill uninvolved nationalists as a response to a perceived growth in nationalists numbers or economic power in this century the loyalist death squads killed approximately 500 uninvolved nationalists in the years 1920 22 in 1935 when there was no military campaign against british rule they slaughtered 1 1 uninvolved nationalists in response to a perceived threat to their jobs it was at this time that the belfast coroner made his infamous remark the deceased was a catholic and a publican and as such was liable to be assassinated again in 1966 three nationalists were killed by the loyalist death squads when cont on page 3