COWEN'S REACTION:Cowen speaks to relatives and praises Cameron's 'brave words' about inquiry, writes
MARY MINIHAN
TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen said yesterday was a “day of vindication” for the families and friends of those who died on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972.
Mr Cowen spoke to relatives of some of the victims by phone yesterday following the publication of the Saville report and will meet a wider group of families in Dublin today.
“Fourteen innocent people died on the streets in Derry on January 30th, 1972. There is no doubt. There are no ambiguities. In truth, there never were. They were innocent. May they rest in peace,” he said.
Mr Cowen praised the “brave and honest words” of British prime minister David Cameron about the inquiry into the killing of 14 civilians, and he thanked Mr Cameron for his “good faith” in ensuring the Saville report was published so early into his office.
“Today is the day when the truth has been set free in the city of Derry. This is not about the reopening of old wounds, but rather it is about the healing of the gaping wounds of injustice left behind by the terrible events of Bloody Sunday,” Mr Cowen said.
“The brave and honest words of prime minister David Cameron in the House of Commons today will echo around the world.”
Mr Cowen said the memories of those who died were etched in the hearts of their loved ones and their deaths were inscribed indelibly on the pages of Irish history.
“There are very few events in the history of a nation that are universally recognised and remembered, that are known for all time only by a name, a place or a date,” he said of Bloody Sunday.
“It was an immense tragedy for those who were killed and injured, and for the people of Derry. It was also a turning point in the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which led to a huge upsurge in support for violence. It was therefore an immense tragedy for all of the people of these islands.”
He said the ultimate injustice perpetrated on Bloody Sunday was the unjustified and unjustifiable killing of innocent civilians by those who claimed to be keeping the peace and upholding the law.
“It was an act of murder that cried out for justice and truth. Instead, justice and truth were denied and cast aside,” he said.
The Saville inquiry had not been made necessary by the “horrific” events of Bloody Sunday but by the “whitewash that was the Widgery report”.
The suffering of the victims and their families was “deeply compounded” by the Widgery tribunal’s “discredited and disgraceful findings”. However this “shameful attempt to distort history at the expense of the innocent” was consigned to history, he added.
“From this day forth, history will record what the families have always known to be true,” he said.
The publication of the report was about the future as well as the past, Mr Cowen said. A new generation in the North did not face the injustices that motivated the civil rights movement in 1972, he said.
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement “would have seemed unthinkable to their fellow citizens a mere 26 years earlier,” he said. The publication of the Saville report was “another step” on the journey of peace, he added.