On 30 January 1972, British soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment ("1 Para") opened fire on unarmed civilians taking part in a civil rights march in the Bogside, a predominantly Catholic area of the Northern Irish city of Derry. Soldiers shot a total of 26 people, 13 of whom died that day. A 14th casualty, John Johnston, died of his wounds four months later. Bloody Sunday claimed the highest number of people killed in a single shooting incident during the entirety of the Troubles, and remains Northern Ireland's deadliest mass shooting.
ITN's cameras recorded the day's descent into tragedy, capturing footage of the peaceful march organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), scenes of panic and violence in the Bogside, and the immediate aftermath as casualties were loaded into ambulances and paratroopers detained local civilians. ITN's Gerald Seymour also interviewed eyewitness Father Anthony Mulvey as well as commander of 1 Para, Colonel Derek Wilford. Wilford described the day's casualties (incorrectly placed at five) as "unfortunate", but insisted his men had been fired on first. The Saville Inquiry's 2010 report, released after a 12-year investigation, found otherwise. It concluded that all of those killed were unarmed, and that soldiers had falsified accounts of the day to justify their opening fire.
On 19 April 2024, the UK's Public Prosecution Service announced that fifteen former soldiers investigated for perjury over Bloody Sunday will not face any charges, citing "insufficient" evidence. Campaigners and relatives of those killed on Bloody Sunday have criticised the ruling, with one describing it as a "slap in the teeth". But PPS senior public prosecutor John O'Neill explained that the finding was based in part on "complex evidential and legal issues", and made clear that it does not in any way "undermine the findings of the Bloody Sunday [Saville] Inquiry".
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