Emotions ran high outside the court. Shouts of “murderers” and “scumbags” rang out as a veteran’s representative struggled to make himself heard. Soldier F was walking free.
This is truly a momentous day in the dark legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
It’s hard to overstate the position Bloody Sunday occupies in the pantheon of outrages committed by all sides during that blood-soaked period, or the generational trauma it engendered in the city of Derry.
The day became known as Bloody Sunday. Pic: PA
For many, immortalised in song and play, Bloody Sunday is totemic of the entire conflict.
Now, more than half a century after 13 people were gunned down on the streets of the Bogside, the only British soldier to be charged with murder has been acquitted on all charges.
Bloody Sunday victims: (top, l-r) Patrick Doherty, Bernard McGuigan, John ‘Jackie’ Duddy and Gerald Donaghey, (bottom l-r) Gerard McKinney, Jim Wray, William McKinney and John Young
(top l-r) Michael Kelly, Michael McDaid, Hugh Gilmore (bottom l-r), Kevin McElhinney, William Nash and John Johnston
The victim’s relatives had waited decade after decade to get to this point.
First, they battled the rushed Widgery Inquiry, which effectively cleared the Paras of blame. Many painful years later, the families won a fresh inquiry and eventual exoneration, along with an apology from the prime minister.
Fifteen more years would pass before Soldier F went on trial for his alleged role in the bloodshed.
Mickey McKinney, a brother of Bloody Sunday victim William McKinney.
Pic: PA
When I speak to the relatives, some in their 70s and 80s, they are unfailingly polite, but you can sense the weariness that comes with telling their stories to generation after generation of journalists. It has been an incredibly long road.
During the week, a few expressed to me their worries that the hearsay evidence of the other paratroopers would not be strong enough to secure a conviction.
On Thursday, those fears came true.
Joe Mahon, who was shot on Bloody Sunday. Pic: PA
For veterans, a sense of vindication and relief. They are angry at what they say is the endless relitigation of the past, carried out by people who could never know what it was like to patrol a rain-lashed West Belfast street, awaiting a sniper’s bullet.
What next? The families’ solicitor says the verdict cannot be appealed.
On a wider level, Labour’s new legacy bill is part of Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to overhaul the reviled Tory-era legislation, and will apparently contain additional protections for British veterans, although the details remain unclear.
It could be the last time we ever see a former British soldier brought before the courts for a Troubles-era killing.
