These many different views and opinions about Bloody Sunday amongst the Catholic community show that lots of people were outraged by the fact that the British Government and Widgery would not accept that it was the armies fault, for example John Kelly, the brother of one of the dead has said “ I live and breathe Bloody Sunday because of the injustice Widgery slandered innocent people who were caught up in a hail of army fire” Bishop Edward Daley said “ What really made Bloody Sunday obscene was that afterwards people at the highest level of British Justice justified it. “He believes the government should admit murder and an insult to the intelligence of the people of Londonderry. Not all branches of the Catholic Church feel this way about the British Government for example: some people blame Widgery and see the tribunal as a white wash that cleared the soldiers of any wrong doing.
Therefore it isn’t just the events of the day that people feel strongly about. The report written by lord Widgery, the lord chief justice is said by some people to be incorrect and untruthful about what actually happened and who started what. The report was written by Lord Widgery, the lord chief justice is said by some people to be incorrect and untruthful about what actually happened, who first opened fire and who was to blame for the deaths of the 13 men involved. The report, which was published in April 1972 less than three months after the event, claimed that there was strong suspicion that some of the deceased had been firing guns or handling bombs that afternoon. However there was no evidence whatsoever that only of the dead had been shot whilst actually holding a gun or firearm. Most Catholics feel the Widgery report was a disgrace because it only took only three months to compile and overlooked evidence, drew inaccurate conclusions and condemned the dead as potential gunmen.
Another important fact is that during the inquiry the injured were in hospital and were not called to give evidence. New evidence has to come to life for instance Cordite was found on the dead which Widgery said proved that they handled weapons but it could have easily come from the soldiers when they handled the bodies or the vehicles the dead were put into.
There are also other opinions and beliefs to consider such as that of the protestants many of whom feels sympathy for the relatives of the dead simply because 13 innocent lives were lost and many families shattered by it. Some extreme protestants see the events of the day as irrelevant a few have even called it Goody Sunday because Catholics were killed, Catholics and many protestants have a different view; many want a new government report that will tell the truth about what exactly happened, especially in the light of evidence recently presented by Don Mullen. Also some of the more liberal minded Catholics want things to change but without the use of violence Eye witness Betley Curran said recently “ The people of Derry can’t lay their grief to rest because there has never been an official apology” But the fact that protestant and Catholics forget their differences on the Sunday nearest to the 30th January shows how much strength of feeling there is still left for an event that happened nearly 30 years ago shows how much Bloody Sunday has affected people and their lives.
After studying all the evidence my feelings on Bloody Sunday are that the army opened fire on the protestors indiscriminately as there was no violence coming from the protestors. I do not agree with the Widgery report as all the evidence was not properly examined because in my opinion if it had have been the soldiers who shot the people would have been prosecuted on a charge of murder and the British army would not have got away with what happened. My views do tally with those of some Irish people today in Northern Ireland as the people I agree with only want justice to be served.
