Bloody Sunday inquiry - Conclusion a comfort for families

IT has taken a six-year inquiry to elicit the facts behind Derry’s Bloody Sunday massacre, but the families of 13 people gunned down by British soldiers will derive solace from the claim that their names will finally be vindicated.

They know from bitter experience the risks inherent in second-guessing the labyrinthine machinations of the British establishment when it comes to meting out justice for Irish people.

The relatives will welcome confident assurance by a top barrister that the £155 million Saville Inquiry is expected to prove none of those killed on that fatal day was armed. They will applaud his conclusion that the infamous Widgery Inquiry, the original probe into the killings, has now been overturned. Controversially, Widgery held there was strong suspicion that a number of persons at the barricade were either armed or close to armed people. But according to Arthur Harvey QC, “that evidence is now based on discredited forensic information”.