Journalist and socialist Eamonn McCann witnessed the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1972, when British soldiers killed 14 demonstrators in Derry. He spoke to Judith Orr about the long campaign for justice.
You once wrote that the families of those shot on Bloody Sunday didn't need to be told the truth - they just wanted the truth to be told. What was it like in the Guildhall when they finally saw the Saville inquiry findings?
"Both Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party now find themselves unable to call on the fierce communal loyalism which helped them contain the scandals"
One of the reasons Gerry Adams is in difficulties over revelations that he covered up charges of child rape against his brother and fellow Sinn Fein (SF) activist Liam is that people in Catholic working class areas who have given a lifetime to Republican ideals now see SF leaders in cahoots with their once-deadly Unionist enemies in implementing British rule. Why should they continue to suffer in silence when the cause has been abandoned?
I wonder if Sir Michael Jackson permitted himself a wry smile about atrocities as he retired last month as Chief of the General Staff.
Stepping down after three years, Jackson's mind may have drifted back to the Bogside and Bloody Sunday - the day he began the rise through the ranks that was to take him to the top.
The exposure of Jackson as the man who masterminded the cover-up of the Derry massacre has never hit the headlines. It appears to have gone unmentioned in any of the biographical pieces which marked his retirement. But it may figure prominently in the long-delayed report of the Bloody Sunday inquiry under Lord Saville. If it doesn't, people in Derry will draw certain conclusions about Saville.
