4,000 take part in Bloody Sunday anniversary march in Derry

A crowd of around four thousand people took part in the 42nd anniversary march in memory of Bloody Sunday in Derry when 14 people were shot dead at a civil rights march by British army paratroopers.
The march, organised by some of the relatives of the dead and injured, is the third one to take place since the bulk of the families decided to end the tradition of holding an anniversary march.
Led by a banner calling for Justice for Bloody Sunday and the traditional 14 white crosses the march left the Bishop’s Field in Creggan where the original Bloody Sunday march had assembled.
The crowd then made their way through the Creggan Estate down into the Brandywell area following the route that had been taken in 1972.
Several bands from Scotland took part and banners were carried by groups from Scotland, Dublin, Belfast and other parts of the country.
One banner called for a detox centre for Derry, an issue that had been hotly debated in the city on recent weeks.
A large contingent of supporters of the dissident republican group the 32-county Sovereignty Movement brought up the rear of the procession distinctive by their white and black banners and flags.
Sinn Fein no longer takes part in this march as they supported the decision of the bulk of the families to stop marching.
At Free Derry Corner a meeting was held chaired by the veteran activist Bernadette McAliskey.
A singer led the crowd in the civil rights anthem ‘We Shall Overcome’ followed by a minute’s silence.
Ms McAliskey told the crowd that she was not confident of getting justice from the latest probe into the events of Bloody Sunday by the PSNI.
She said referring to the PSNI statement that they are going to start interviewing up to 1000 witnesses who gave evidence to the Saville Inquiry: “When the police come to you tell them Bernadette said why don’t they start with the accused men and see what they have to say.”
She added: “Surely it would be more obvious to begin questioning the accused first. I think some of them would admit their guilt right away and start telling who said what to who about Bloody Sunday.”
Introducing the main speaker of the day, Stafford Scott of the Mark Duggan Campaign in London, Ms McAliskey said that she had come to know communities like Tottenham very well during her time as a Westminster MP.
Mr. Scott likened the experience of Bloody Sunday to what he said had happened in London with the killing ‘of an unarmed man’ Mark Duggan by the police.
He described Ms McAliskey as ‘a heroine of mine’ for her work in working class communities like the Broadwater Farm in Tottenham.
There was no real security presence during the march and afterwards the crowd dispersed without incident.