CPA - The Guardian

News that the long-awaited report on the events of “Bloody Sunday” has been hit by another delay has caused dismay among relatives of those killed and injured during the 1972 civil rights march in Derry.

Bloody Sunday mural showing a priest escorting injured marchers to safety using a white handkerchief.

The publication of the Saville inquiry findings, understood to amount to 4,500 pages, are now not expected until next March, possibly in the run-up to a general election. The delay is being blamed on “technical difficulties” associated with printing the mammoth report.

Until the recent announcement, it was expected that the inquiry report would be available before Christmas.

Relatives, who have waited with patience and dignity for the report, are particularly concerned. Only one parent of the Bloody Sunday victims – Lawrence McElhinney, father of Kevin McElhinney – is still alive, while six of those injured have died since the inquiry began.

The final bill for the inquiry, the investigation element of which effectively ended six years ago, is expected to be in the region of £200 million (AU$350m).

New inquest

Towards the end of September, a letter to the family of Daniel Hegarty from the Office of the Attorney General confirmed that a new inquest into the young man’s death is to be held.

Hegarty was just 15 years old when he was shot by soldiers entering Derry’s Creggan estate on July 31, 1972, during Operation Motorman. The announcement of a new inquiry follows a thorough investigation by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET), a unit within the Police Service of Northern Ireland set up in 2005 to investigate “unresolved deaths” resulting from the conflict in Northern Ireland between 1968 and 1998.

The unit’s work includes the reopening of files on 124 deaths resulting from fatal shootings by British army soldiers between 1970 and 1973.

The HET inquiry into Hegarty’s death concluded that he and two cousins who were with him that day had been unarmed and posed no threat when the soldiers opened fire without warning.

The investigation also concluded that the original Royal Ulster Constabulary investigation had been “hopelessly inadequate and dreadful” and that the boys were no more than three metres away from the soldiers when shot at – not 20 as was claimed by police and soldiers.

The HET has called upon the British government to apologise for the killing. The decision to hold a new inquest has been welcomed by the family and the Pat Finucane Centre, an independent human rights group that has backed the Hegarty family’s quest for the truth.

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