From Bloody Sunday to the Saville report
1972
JANUARY 30thA demonstration in Derry protesting against internment without trial organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association ends with 13 civilians dead (a 14th dies a few weeks later) and 13 injured after British paratroopers opened fire.
JANUARY 31stIn Northern Ireland Catholics from all walks of life demonstrate with strikes at public institutions and by closing shops, schools and other places of work. In Derry teachers call a three-day strike, and shops, pubs and factories close.
Seven Derry priests hold a press conference, accusing the colonel of the parachute battalion of “wilful murder”.
Widespread protests take place both North and South of the Border in protest at Bloody Sunday.
Violent scenes take place at a protest outside the British embassy in Merrion Square, Dublin, when bombs, bricks and stones are thrown and most of the embassy windows are broken. Up to 200 gardaí thwart an attempt to burn down the embassy. A further 10,000 people demonstrate in Cork.
In Dublin, the cabinet meets in emergency session and the Irish ambassador in London, Dr Donal O’Sullivan, is recalled. Taoiseach Jack Lynch calls for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Derry and Catholic ghettoes, the end of internment without trial and a declaration that Britain wants to achieve a final settlement of the Irish question.
In a national broadcast he orders a national day of mourning.
In the British House of Commons, a judicial inquiry is announced. Independent MP for Mid-Ulster Bernadette Devlin, crosses the floor of the House of Commons and strikes British home secretary Reginald Maudling several times in the face, calling him a “murdering hypocrite” and claims he was lying to the house when he said there would be an independent inquiry into the events of January 30th.
FEBRUARY 1stBritish prime minister Edward Heath announces that a public inquiry will be carried out by lord chief justice, Lord Widgery. Disturbances and strikes continue in various locations in Northern Ireland while the general strike in Derry intensifies. A British soldier is shot dead in Belfast and five people are injured. In the Republic a bomb destroys the Royal Liver offices in Dún Laoghaire while the docks office in Waterford is blown up.
Thousands continue to protest outside the British embassy in Dublin while attacks take place on British offices based in Ireland.
In Britain, meetings and protest marches take place in several cities while a riot breaks out at an anti-internment protest in Oxford.
In New York, minister for foreign affairs Paddy Hillery says: “Britain is provoking a war against a nation which, to a large extent, is unarmed”.
FEBRUARY 2ndThe funerals of 12 of the 13 victims of Bloody Sunday take place, 11 in Derry and one in Donegal. About 20,000 people attended the funerals, including five Irish government ministers.
In the Republic a national day of mourning is observed. Many businesses close and special services and Masses are held in honour of the dead. Thousands attend protests and Masses throughout the country.
The British embassy in Dublin is burned down and 71 people are injured in baton attacks when tens of thousands of people demonstrate in Dublin in what is described as the biggest demonstration in a generation.
FEBRUARY 3rdThe 13th victim, William McKinney (27), is buried in Derry. 550 extra British army troops are sent to the North as Britain's policy on Ireland hardens after the attack on the embassy in Dublin.
FEBRUARY 5thA march of about 8,000 people in London turns violent when police stop demonstrators from laying 13 mock coffins at the door of Downing Street.
FEBRUARY 6thMore than 50,000 people defy the Stormont-ordered ban on parades to take part in a mass demonstration in Newry organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.
FEBRUARY 8thBritain turns down an offer by the secretary general of the UN, Dr Kurt Waldheim, to intervene between the Irish and British governments on the situation in Northern Ireland.
APRIL 18thThe Widgery report is published. Widgery concludes that shots had been fired at the soldiers before they started the firing that led to the casualties; that for the most part the soldiers acted as they did because they thought their standing orders required it; and that while there was no proof that any of the deceased had been shot while handling a firearm or bomb, there was a strong suspicion that some had been firing weapons or handling bombs in the course of the afternoon.
JUNE 16thJohn Johnston, widely considered as the 14th victim of Bloody Sunday, dies.
1987
A group of relatives, along with a number of Sinn Féin members and other political activists, form the Bloody Sunday Initiative, later the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign (BSJC), specifically to push for a second inquiry.
1992
The new group takes over the organisation of the annual commemorative march, advancing three demands: repudiation of Widgery and the institution of a new inquiry; formal acknowledgement of the innocence of the victims; and the prosecution of the soldiers responsible.
1995
Taoiseach John Bruton designates a civil servant specifically to liaise with the Bloody Sunday families.
1997
JANUARY 30thOn the 25th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the British prime minister, John Major says there is "no need" for a new investigation unless fresh evidence is discovered.
Documents unearthed by the director of British Irish Rights Watch, Jane Winter, and Belfast solicitor Patricia Coyle form the basis of a report by Prof Dermot Walsh in 1997, The Bloody Sunday Tribunal of Inquiry: A Resounding Defeat for Truth, Justice and the Rule of Law.
JUNEBertie Ahern presents Tony Blair's new government with a 178-page assessment of the material, drawing on Walsh's analysis. A preface for the first time asserts the demand for a new inquiry as an Irish government position.
1998
JANUARY 29thFollowing years of pressure from victims' families and politicians in the North and in the Republic, British prime minister Tony Blair announces a fresh inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday.
In a statement to MPs in the House of Commons the day before the 26th anniversary of the tragedy, he announced the inquiry would be chaired by Lord Saville.
In his speech to the house, Mr Blair said that Lord Widgery’s report, which was produced within 11 weeks, was not able to consider all the evidence that might have been available, did not receive any evidence from the wounded who were still in hospital and did not consider individually substantial numbers of eyewitness accounts provided to his inquiry in the early part of March substantial numbers of eyewitness accounts provided to his inquiry in the early part of March 1972. He said new eyewitness accounts, new ballistic material and new medical evidence had come to light about the events of the day.
APRIL 3rdLord Saville delivers his opening statement in the Guildhall, seven days before the Belfast Agreement.
APRIL 10thThe Belfast Agreement is signed and endorsed by the British and Irish governments and endorsed by most political parties in Northern Ireland.
OCTOBER 14thThe inquiry grants anonymity to British soldiers. Under a series of rulings, the inquiry said it had no choice but to protect the identities of firing and non-firing soldiers following a British Court of Appeal ruling.
2000
MARCH 27thOral hearings begin in Derry's Guildhall.
2001
MAY 2ndSinn Féin's Martin McGuinness confirms publicly for the first time that he was the IRA's second-in-command in Derry on Bloody Sunday and that he had given a statement to the Bloody Sunday tribunal saying that the IRA did not engage with the British army on Bloody Sunday and that there were no IRA units in the area of the march.
MAY 15thFormer Westminster MP Bernadette Devlin McAliskey tells the inquiry that the British government, military and sections of the media were involved in a murder cover-up on Bloody Sunday.
2002
FEBRUARY 3rdUp to 30,000 people take part in the 30th Bloody Sunday anniversary commemoration in Derry.
MARCH 14thThe Ulster Unionist peer, Lord Kilclooney (John Taylor), tells the inquiry that he believed in 1972, and still believes, that 13 gunmen were killed by the British army on Bloody Sunday.
SEPTEMBER 2002 to OCTOBER 2003Hearing moves to London to take military and other evidence.
2003
JANUARY 14thFormer British prime minister Sir Edward Heath says it is "absurd to suggest that Her Majesty's government intended or was prepared to risk the events which occurred".
2004
NOVEMBER 24thInquiry closes.
2005
JANUARY 20th54-year-old Martin Doherty became the first person to be sent to jail as a result of the Bloody Sunday killings. Doherty started a three-month sentence for being in contempt after he refused to give evidence to the inquiry.
2008
NOVEMBER 20thNorthern secretary Shaun Woodward says the inquiry has cost £185million so far.
2010
MARCH 22ndAfter 12 years and at a cost of £200 million, the Bloody Sunday inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville, is completed.
JUNE 15thFollowing numerous delays, Lord Saville's report into the 1972 British army shootings is published.