JUDE COLLINS: John Hume's Bloody Sunday Quote Partly Correct
Many people today are indifferent to the events of Bloody Sunday 1972. This is understandable—most were not alive, are not from Derry or the Bogside, and over fifty years have passed with many other concerns taking priority. However, the families and communities directly affected have never forgotten.
Last week’s acquittal of Soldier F on all murder charges was particularly painful. It took fifty-three years to bring a British soldier to trial for that day’s events, only for him to be found not guilty.
In the immediate aftermath of 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’s prediction about reunification was mistaken—there is still no united Ireland after all these years. Yet, his observation about alienation remains painfully true. The relatives of the victims expressed deep disgust after the verdict, and the iconic Free Derry mural now reads, “There is no British justice.”
It feels surreal that the Parachute Regiment, accused of killing eight innocent civilians in Ballymurphy, Belfast, then proceeded to fatally shoot thirteen people in the Bogside, with a fourteenth dying later on. At the time, Home Secretary Reginald Maudling declared the British army “came under fire...”
Summary
The Bloody Sunday verdict echoes longstanding alienation in Northern Ireland, confirming John Hume’s insight even as reunification remains unresolved.
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