🔗 Share this article

Sunday 30 January 1972 is remembered as among the most fatal – and consequential – days during thirty years of conflict in the region.

In the streets where it happened – the images of that fateful day are displayed on the walls and embedded in people's minds.

A public gathering was conducted on a chilly yet clear day in Derry.

The march was a protest against the system of detention without trial – detaining individuals without legal proceedings – which had been implemented following multiple years of unrest.

Military personnel from the specialized division fatally wounded 13 people in the neighborhood – which was, and still is, a strongly republican community.

One image became particularly memorable.

Photographs showed a clergyman, Father Daly, waving a stained with blood white handkerchief in his effort to protect a group moving a youth, Jackie Duddy, who had been killed.

Media personnel recorded much footage on the day.

The archive contains Fr Daly informing a media representative that soldiers "appeared to discharge weapons randomly" and he was "totally convinced" that there was no reason for the shooting.

The narrative of what happened was rejected by the first inquiry.

The Widgery Tribunal determined the Army had been shot at first.

During the peace process, the administration commissioned a fresh examination, in response to advocacy by surviving kin, who said Widgery had been a whitewash.

During 2010, the report by the inquiry said that on balance, the paratroopers had fired first and that zero among the casualties had presented danger.

The then Prime Minister, David Cameron, issued an apology in the government chamber – stating deaths were "without justification and unjustifiable."

The police began to investigate the incident.

A military veteran, known as the defendant, was brought to trial for murder.

Accusations were made regarding the fatalities of James Wray, twenty-two, and in his mid-twenties another victim.

The defendant was additionally charged of seeking to harm several people, Joseph Friel, Joe Mahon, another person, and an unidentified individual.

Remains a legal order protecting the defendant's anonymity, which his lawyers have claimed is essential because he is at risk of attack.

He testified the investigation that he had solely shot at persons who were armed.

This assertion was disputed in the final report.

Material from the inquiry could not be used immediately as evidence in the legal proceedings.

In court, the veteran was shielded from sight using a privacy screen.

He made statements for the opening instance in the hearing at a session in December 2024, to reply "innocent" when the charges were read.

Relatives of the deceased on the incident travelled from Derry to Belfast Crown Court each day of the case.

John Kelly, whose relative was killed, said they were aware that listening to the case would be painful.

"I visualize all details in my memory," he said, as we visited the main locations mentioned in the case – from Rossville Street, where his brother was fatally wounded, to the adjacent the area, where one victim and the second person were died.

"It returns me to my location that day.

"I helped to carry the victim and lay him in the ambulance.

"I experienced again the entire event during the evidence.

"Notwithstanding experiencing all that – it's still worthwhile for me."