JUDE COLLINS: John Hume Was Half-Right About Bloody Sunday
Many people today don't care about what happened on Bloody Sunday in 1972. It’s not surprising — they were born later, don’t live in Derry or the Bogside, and over fifty years have passed with many other events filling their minds. However, the families and friends of the victims have never forgotten.
This pain was especially sharp last week when Soldier F was acquitted of all murder charges. It took fifty-three years to bring a British soldier to trial for the events of that day, and the verdict was not guilty.
After Bloody Sunday, John Hume told an Irish Times journalist:
“Many people down there feel now it’s a united Ireland or nothing. Alienation is pretty total.”
John Hume was mistaken about reunification — more than five decades later, Ireland remains divided. Yet, he was correct about the deep alienation felt.
Relatives’ Reaction and the Legacy
The relatives expressed nothing but disgust after the verdict. The iconic Free Derry mural has been altered to say:
"There is no British justice."
It’s almost surreal to believe that after the British military killed eight innocent civilians in Ballymurphy in Belfast, the Parachute Regiment entered the Bogside and deliberately shot thirteen people, with a fourteenth dying later.
The Home Secretary at the time, Reginald Maudling, stated the British army “came under fire...”
Summary
The long-awaited trial ended in acquittal, deepening the sense of alienation among families and highlighting unresolved wounds from Bloody Sunday.
Would you like the summary sentence to be more formal or conversational?