Bloody Sunday Inquiry

Last updated

The Guildhall, Derry, location of the early part of the inquiry Guildhall,Derry.jpg
The Guildhall, Derry, location of the early part of the inquiry

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry, also known as the Saville Inquiry or the Saville Report after its chairman, Lord Saville of Newdigate, was established in 1998 by British Prime Minister Tony Blair after campaigns for a second inquiry by families of those killed and injured in Derry on Bloody Sunday during the peak of The Troubles. It was published on 15 June 2010. The inquiry was set up to establish a definitive version of the events of Sunday 30 January 1972, superseding the tribunal set up under Lord Widgery that had reported on 19 April 1972, [1] 11 weeks after the events, and to resolve the accusations of a whitewash that had surrounded it.

Contents

The inquiry took the form of a tribunal established under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921, and consisted of Lord Saville, William L. Hoyt, the former Chief Justice of New Brunswick and John L. Toohey, a former Justice of the High Court of Australia. [2]

The judges finished hearing evidence on 23 November 2004, [3] and reconvened once again on 16 December to listen to testimony from another witness, known as Witness X, who had been unavailable earlier. [4]

The report was published on 15 June 2010. The British prime minister David Cameron addressed the House of Commons that afternoon where he acknowledged, among other things, that the paratroopers had fired the first shot, had fired on fleeing unarmed civilians, and shot and killed one man who was already wounded. [5] He then apologised on behalf of the British Government. [6]

Publication

The report of the inquiry was published on 15 June 2010. [7] That morning thousands of people walked the path that the civil rights marchers had taken on Bloody Sunday before 13 were killed, [8] holding photos of those who had been shot. [9] The families of the victims received advance copies inside the Guildhall. [8]

Conclusions

The report stated, "The firing by soldiers of 1 PARA on Bloody Sunday caused the deaths of 13 people and injury to a similar number, none of whom was posing a threat of causing death or serious injury," [10] and also said, "The immediate responsibility for the deaths and injuries on Bloody Sunday lies with those members of Support Company whose unjustifiable firing was the cause of those deaths and injuries." [11] Saville stated that British paratroopers "lost control", [12] fatally shooting fleeing civilians and those who tried to aid the civilians who had been shot by the Parachute Regiment. [13] The report stated that soldiers involving in Bloody Sunday had concocted lies in their attempt to hide their acts. [13] Saville stated that the civilians had not been warned by the British soldiers present that they intended to shoot. [8] The report states, contrary to the previously established belief, that none of the soldiers fired in response to attacks by petrol bombers or stone throwers, and that the civilians were not posing any threat. [8]

Saville said British soldiers should not have been ordered to enter the Bogside area as "Colonel Wilford either deliberately disobeyed Brigadier MacLellan’s order or failed for no good reason to appreciate the clear limits on what he had been authorised to do". [14] The report stated five British soldiers aimed shots at civilians they knew did not pose a threat and two other British soldiers shot at civilians "in the belief that they might have identified gunmen, but without being certain that this was the case". [14]

The report found that Martin McGuinness "did not engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire."

Reactions to publication

Prime Minister David Cameron, addressing the House of Commons after the publication of the report on 15 June 2010, described what the British soldiers had done on that day as "both unjustified and unjustifiable", adding that "it was wrong". [15] He acknowledged that all those who died were unarmed when they were killed by British soldiers and that a British soldier had fired the first shot at civilians. [8] [13] He also said that this was not a premeditated action, though "there was no point in trying to soften or equivocate" as "what happened should never, ever have happened". [8] Cameron then apologised on behalf of the British Government by saying he was "deeply sorry". [8] [13] [16]

Relatives of the civilians who had been killed in Bloody Sunday gave a "thumbs up" to the crowd which had gathered outside the Guildhall to hear the conclusions of the report and to listen to Cameron's apology on behalf of the British government. [13] Crowds of people applauded upon hearing Cameron's apology broadcast on a giant screen which had been erected in the city. [16] The New York Times called it "an extraordinary apology". [17] Historian Paul Bew, writing in The Daily Telegraph , summed up the length of the inquiry as follows: "It is astonishing to think that when the tribunal, chaired by Lord Saville, began its work in 1998, David Cameron was not even in Parliament. Now, 38 years after the event itself, Bloody Sunday has come back to haunt another British prime minister". [17]

The Belfast Telegraph quoted Labour MP Harriet Harman as saying that the report spoke for itself, but that given its length, many groups regrettably would likely be spurred to, and be able to, identify enough in the report to justify a predictable "flogging of traditional hobby horses". [18]

Criticism

One lawyer representing soldiers involved in the enquiry stated that Lord Saville had "cherry picked" the evidence in his inquiry and that Lord Saville had felt under pressure to give a verdict that was not borne out by the available evidence. [19] This view was later echoed by a former paratrooper writing in the Belfast Telegraph that the Saville Inquiry was one-sided and did not reflect events of the day as he experienced them. [20]

Ulster Unionist Party leader Sir Reg Empey criticised the inquiry itself, questioning the benefit of reliving the "darkest years" of Northern Ireland's history after 40 years, and also contrasting the £190m Saville Inquiry into 13 deaths with the absence of any inquiries into the deaths of people at the hands of paramilitary groups during the same period. [21] This second criticism was also echoed in comments from Protestants reported in The Belfast Telegraph that the report created an unjust hierarchy in which the victims of Bloody Sunday were unfairly elevated above the more numerous victims of IRA violence. [18]

Timeline

2000

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry opened properly in 2000 when formal public hearings began at the Guildhall in Derry. The Inquiry held public hearings on 116 days over the year, clocking up more than 600 hours of evidence. The vast majority of the evidence was from eyewitnesses.

In August, the inquiry ordered the soldiers who had opened fire to return to Derry to give their evidence. However, in December the Court of Appeal overruled the inquiry and accepted that the former soldiers would be in danger from dissident republicans should they return to Northern Ireland.

2001

The inquiry heard that there may be a "wall of silence" in Derry over what exactly members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) were doing on the day. The allegations persisted when a witness in February 2001 refused to name a man he said had fired at soldiers. After months of speculation, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness announced that he would give evidence to the inquiry.

2002

The inquiry relocated to the Westminster Central Hall in London to hear evidence from former British Army soldiers, who claimed they feared being attacked by dissident republicans if they travelled to Derry. [22]

2004

The judges retired on 23 November 2004. [3] They reconvened once again on 16 December to listen to testimony from another key witness, known as Witness X. [4]

2007

Publication of the Inquiry's Report was expected at the end of 2007, or possibly early 2008. [23]

2008

On 8 February 2008, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Shaun Woodward revealed that the Bloody Sunday Inquiry was still costing £500,000 a month although it had not held hearings since 2005. The total cost of the Inquiry had reached £181.2m (by December 2007) and would not report until the second half of 2008. More than half of the overall cost is believed to have been for legal bills for the Inquiry. [24] On 6 November 2008, the chairman of the Inquiry, Lord Saville, revealed that his report into the events of Bloody Sunday would not be completed for at least a further year. The inquiry's final report had been expected to be completed by the end of 2008 and published in early 2009. [25]

2009

The chairman of the inquiry, Lord Saville, revealed that the inquiry report would be handed to the government in March 2010, some nine years after the first evidence was heard, a delay which Lord Saville admitted was "extremely disappointing". Shaun Woodward said he had been "profoundly shocked" by the new delay, adding "I am concerned at the impact on the families of those who lost loved ones and those who were injured". [26]

2010

The Saville Report was handed to government lawyers on 24 March 2010, twelve years after the inquiry was established. The government lawyers then checked the report for evidence which could pose a threat to "national security". The report was given to Owen Paterson, the newly appointed Secretary of State, who decided on an appropriate date to publish the report. [27] John Kelly, whose brother Michael was killed on Bloody Sunday, said the families feared the report "will fall victim to selective leakage and other partisan usage long before the full report sees the light of day" and urged the Secretary of State to publish the report as soon as possible. [28] On 26 May 2010 it was announced that the Saville Report would be published on 15 June. [29] Comments in the press emphasised the financial cost of the inquiry, and the ways in which this could overshadow its legal and moral value. [30] [31] [32]

Shortly before the publication of the long-awaited Saville Report, it was announced that soldiers from the Parachute Regiment would be returning to Helmand in Afghanistan on operations for the third tour in four years in October and commanders believed that the report could cause a "morale-damaging backlash" against the British Army if the reports were not viewed in the context of the violence and chaos that had engulfed Northern Ireland in 1972 and that while there should be no attempt to justify the killing of civilians by British paratroopers, senior defence officials emphasised that the events of Bloody Sunday were "a tragedy which belonged to another era" and should not reflect badly on present day armed forces. [33]

Controversy over cost and duration

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry generated controversy due to its prolonged nature, mounting costs and questions regarding its relevance.

Some like Peter Oborne labelled the inquiry a "shambles", estimating its final cost at "more than £200 million". [34] He has suggested that while "Most people... accept that in Northern Ireland the only way forward is by casting a veil of obscurity over the past": however the Saville inquiry marks the "one exception to this rule: the British army"; whose "conduct... is being put under a microscope by the Saville public inquiry". [35]

The inquiry caused further controversy when on 4 July 2006 the Government revealed its cost to the taxpayer in an attempt "to block an official inquiry into the 7 July London bombings". "Tessa Jowell, let slip on BBC TV's Sunday AM programme that 'the latest estimate... is about £400 million'": an amount labelled by "Downing Street and ministers" as an "'awful' cost": [36]

In response to questions about the Bloody Sunday inquiry, Government officials were unable to explain why the cost was more than double the estimates given publicly. Miss Jowell's aides confirmed that she had repeated a figure given to her by John Reid, the Home Secretary, who when he was the Northern Ireland secretary had challenged the hefty fees being charged by lawyers at the inquiry.

Blair's official spokesman later agreed that costs had run out of control, saying that the inquiry had taken a "long time and cost an awful lot of money". It heard from more than 900 witnesses before it ended last November and Lord Saville retired to write his report.

David Lidington, the Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, said the costs were "scandalous". He would be asking in Parliament why there had been such a dramatic increase. Conservative party figures said the inquiry had cost everyone in the country £6.64. The total of £400 million would have paid for [a year's salary for] more than 15,000 nurses, nearly 5,000 doctors and 11,000 policemen, or 13 extra Apache helicopters for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bloody Sunday (1972)</span> Mass shooting in Derry, Northern Ireland

Bloody Sunday, or the Bogside Massacre, was a massacre on 30 January 1972 when British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a protest march in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland. Fourteen people died: thirteen were killed outright, while the death of another man four months later was attributed to his injuries. Many of the victims were shot while fleeing from the soldiers, and some were shot while trying to help the wounded. Other protesters were injured by shrapnel, rubber bullets, or batons, two were run down by British Army vehicles, and some were beaten. All of those shot were Catholics. The march had been organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) to protest against imprisonment without trial. The soldiers were from the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, the same battalion implicated in the Ballymurphy massacre several months before.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Official Irish Republican Army</span> Former Irish republican paramilitary group

The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA was an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a "workers' republic" encompassing all of Ireland. It emerged in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of the Troubles, when the Irish Republican Army (IRA) split into two factions. The other was the Provisional IRA. Each continued to call itself simply "the IRA" and rejected the other's legitimacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin McGuinness</span> Irish republican politician and IRA leader (1950–2017)

James Martin Pacelli McGuinness was an Irish republican politician and statesman for Sinn Féin and a leader within the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) during The Troubles. He was the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from May 2007 to January 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Saville, Baron Saville of Newdigate</span>

Mark Oliver Saville, Baron Saville of Newdigate, is a British judge and former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Widgery, Baron Widgery</span> English judge (1911–1981)

John Passmore Widgery, Baron Widgery, was an English judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of England from 1971 to 1980. He is principally noted for presiding over the Widgery Tribunal on the events of Bloody Sunday.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian McKay</span> British soldier (1953–1982)

Ian John McKay, VC was a British Army soldier and a posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eamonn McCann</span> Northern Irish writer and activist (born 1943)

Eamonn McCann is an Irish political activist, former politician and journalist from Derry, Northern Ireland. McCann was a People Before Profit (PBP) Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Foyle from 2016 to 2017. In 2019, he was elected to Derry City and Strabane District Council, remaining in the position until his resignation for health reasons in March 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Daly (bishop)</span> Irish Catholic priest

Edward Kevin Daly was an Irish Roman Catholic priest and author. He served as the Bishop of Derry from 1974 to 1993. Daly took part in several civil rights marches and events during the Troubles. He came to wider attention during Bloody Sunday in January 1972, waving a blood-stained white handkerchief as he escorted a group carrying a mortally wounded protester after British troops opened fire on demonstrators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark McFadden</span>

Mark McFadden is a broadcaster and journalist with ITV News. He is based in Northern Ireland where he broadcasts for UTV.

Baha Mousa was an Iraqi man who died while in British Army custody in Basra, Iraq in September 2003. The inquiry into his death found that Mousa's death was caused by "factors including lack of food and water, heat, exhaustion, fear, previous injuries and the hooding and stress positions used by British troops - and a final struggle with his guards". The inquiry heard that Mousa was hooded for almost 24 hours during his 36 hours of custody by the 1st Battalion of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment and that he suffered at least 93 injuries before his death. The report later details that Mousa was subject to several practices banned under both domestic law and the Geneva Conventions. Seven British soldiers were charged in connection with the case. Six were found not guilty. Corporal Donald Payne pleaded guilty to inhumane treatment of a prisoner and was jailed for a year and dismissed from the Army. On 19 September 2006 with his guilty plea to inhumane treatment of Mousa, Payne became the first British soldier to admit to a war crime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Banner</span> 1969–2007 British military operation in Northern Ireland during the Troubles

Operation Banner was the operational name for the British Armed Forces' operation in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007, as part of the Troubles. It was the longest continuous deployment in British military history. The British Army was initially deployed, at the request of the unionist government of Northern Ireland, in response to the August 1969 riots. Its role was to support the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and to assert the authority of the British government in Northern Ireland. This involved counter-insurgency and supporting the police in carrying out internal security duties such as guarding key points, mounting checkpoints and patrols, carrying out raids and searches, riot control and bomb disposal. More than 300,000 soldiers served in Operation Banner. At the peak of the operation in the 1970s, about 21,000 British troops were deployed, most of them from Great Britain. As part of the operation, a new locally-recruited regiment was also formed: the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerard Donaghy</span> Bloody Sunday victim (1954–1972)

Gerard V. Donaghy, sometimes transcribed as Gerald Donaghey, was a native of the Bogside, Derry who was killed by members of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday in Derry, Northern Ireland.

Toby Harnden is a British-American author and journalist who was awarded the Orwell Prize for Books in 2012. He is the author of First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11, published by Little, Brown in September, 2021. He spent almost 25 years working for British newspapers, mainly as a foreign correspondent. From 2013 until 2018, he was Washington bureau chief of The Sunday Times. He previously spent 17 years at The Daily Telegraph, based in London, Belfast, Washington, Jerusalem and Baghdad, finishing as US Editor from 2006 to 2011. The book's title is a reference to paramilitary officer Johnny Micheal Spann, a member of the CIA's Team Alpha, whose eight members became the first Americans behind enemy lines in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks of 2001. He is the author of two previous books: Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh (1999) and Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story of Britain's War in Afghanistan (2011). He was reporter and presenter of the BBC Panorama Special programme Broken by Battle about suicide and PTSD among British soldiers, broadcast in 2013.

Events during the year 1972 in Northern Ireland.

The city of Derry, Northern Ireland, was severely affected by the Troubles. The conflict is widely considered to have begun in the city, with many regarding the Battle of the Bogside in 1969 as the beginning of the Troubles. The Bloody Sunday incident of 1972 occurred in Derry, in the Bogside area.

William Lloyd Hoyt, is a Canadian lawyer and judge. He was Chief Justice of New Brunswick from 1993 to 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ballymurphy massacre</span> 1971 massacre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by the British Army

The Ballymurphy massacre was a series of incidents between 9 and 11 August 1971, in which the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment of the British Army killed eleven civilians in Ballymurphy, Belfast, Northern Ireland, as part of Operation Demetrius. The shootings were later referred to as Belfast's Bloody Sunday, a reference to the killing of civilians by the same battalion in Derry a few months later. The 1972 inquests had returned an open verdict on all of the killings, but a 2021 coroner's report found that all those killed had been innocent and that the killings were "without justification".

General Sir Robert Cyril Ford was a British Army general who was Adjutant-General to the Forces. The Bloody Sunday shootings occurred during his tenure as Commander Land Forces, Northern Ireland.

Colonel Derek Wilford OBE was a British Army officer who commanded the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burning of the British Embassy in Dublin</span> Property attack by Official IRA members in 1972

The burning of the British Embassyin Dublin happened on 2 February 1972 at 39 Merrion Square. This occurred during demonstrations outside the chancery by a very large and angry crowd, following the Bloody Sunday massacre in Derry on 30 January 1972, when the British Army's Parachute Regiment shot dead 14 unarmed Catholic civilians during a civil rights demonstration.

References

  1. "Widgery Tribunal Report". Conflict Archive on the Internet. Archived from the original on 23 September 2011. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
  2. "Questions & Answers". Bloody Sunday Inquiry. 2010. Archived from the original on 13 March 2011. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  3. 1 2 "Saville inquiry judges retire". BBC News. 23 November 2004. Archived from the original on 11 January 2007. Retrieved 28 July 2005.
  4. 1 2 "Surprise return for inquiry". BBC News. 16 December 2004. Archived from the original on 11 January 2007. Retrieved 9 June 2006.
  5. "Saville: Bloody Sunday killings unjustifiable". Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 15 June 2010. Archived from the original on 16 June 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  6. "Bloody Sunday report published: Key findings". BBC News. 15 June 2010. Archived from the original on 15 June 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  7. "Report of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry". 15 June 2010. Archived from the original on 25 February 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Bloody Sunday report published". BBC News. 15 June 2010. Archived from the original on 15 June 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  9. Richard Allen Greene (15 June 2010). "Bloody Sunday report blames British soldiers". CNN. Archived from the original on 21 October 2012. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  10. "The overall assessment". Report of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry. 15 June 2010. Archived from the original on 3 November 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  11. "The question of responsibility for the deaths and injuries on Bloody Sunday". Report of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry. 15 June 2010. Archived from the original on 18 June 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  12. "Bloody Sunday victims all innocent". Al Jazeera. 15 June 2010. Archived from the original on 15 June 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 John Bingham, Rosa Prince and Thomas Harding (15 June 2010). "Bloody Sunday Inquiry: victims were all unarmed and killed without justification, says Saville report". The Daily Telegraph . London. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  14. 1 2 "Inquiry finds soldiers lost 'self control'". The Irish Times . Irish Times Trust. 15 June 2010. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  15. "Bloody Sunday killings 'unjustifiable'". RTÉ News and Current Affairs . Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 15 June 2010. Archived from the original on 16 June 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  16. 1 2 Alistair MacDonald (15 June 2010). "Bloody Sunday Killings 'Unjustified'". The Wall Street Journal . Dow Jones & Company. Archived from the original on 20 November 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  17. 1 2 John F. Burns and Eamon Quinn (15 June 2010). "Cameron Says 1972 N. Ireland Killings Were 'Unjustified'". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  18. 1 2 Patterson, Henry (16 June 2010). "For many, the Bloody Sunday Saville Report has fallen short – Opinion". Belfast Telegraph. Archived from the original on 18 June 2010. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  19. "Soldiers' lawyer: Saville 'cherry picked' evidence". BBC News. 15 June 2010. Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  20. "Bloody Sunday Inquiry: A soldier's view – 'I was in Derry that day. I just wish the Army hadn't been' – Opinion". Belfast Telegraph. 16 June 2010. Archived from the original on 15 October 2012. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  21. "Time for Northern Ireland to move on – Empey – Ulster Unionist Party Northern". Uster Unionist Party. Archived from the original on 18 June 2010. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  22. "City move for Bloody Sunday Inquiry". BBC News. 24 September 2002. Archived from the original on 15 July 2004. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  23. "Further wait for inquiry report". BBC News. 25 October 2006. Archived from the original on 7 November 2006. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  24. Thornton, Chris (8 February 2008). "Bloody Sunday probe costing £500k a month". The Belfast Telegraph . p. 4.
  25. Zagreb (6 November 2008). "Bloody Sunday report delayed for at least another year". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 26 August 2009. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  26. "Families' dismay at Saville delay". BBC News. 24 September 2009. Archived from the original on 24 June 2020. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  27. "Bloody Sunday report plan changed". BBC News. 19 March 2010. Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  28. "Sunday families want report date". BBC News. 23 February 2010. Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  29. "Date set for Bloody Sunday report". BBC News. 26 May 2010. Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  30. Gilligan, Andrew (29 May 2010). "Bloody Sunday Inquiry: A£191 million fiasco – Finally, 12 years after being set up, and at a huge cost, the Saville report looks set to satisfy no one except the relatives of the dead". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 2 June 2010. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  31. "Bloody Sunday inquiry a disaster, says Ken Clarke". BBC News. 13 June 2010. Archived from the original on 16 June 2010. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  32. "Saville Inquiry an 'expensive disaster'". Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 13 June 2010. Archived from the original on 16 June 2010. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  33. Rayment, Sean (12 June 2010). "David Cameron urged to tell public not to judge Army over Bloody Sunday killings – The Prime Minister has been urged to speak up in defence of today's soldiers when the long-awaited report on the Bloody Sunday killings is published next week". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 16 June 2010. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  34. Oborne, Peter (10 January 2004). "The truth is he lied". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  35. Oborne, Peter (12 January 2002). "The politics of bloody murder". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2019.(Subscription required.)
  36. Jones, George; Petre, Jonathan (5 July 2006). "Bloody Sunday: Full inquiry, cost £400m. 7 July bombs: No inquiry, 'too expensive'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2019.