Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

A few short weeks ago marked the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. As we know, it occurred on 30 January 1972. We know that British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a peaceful protest march in the Bogside area of Derry. It is a great community, a community which has shown true resilience despite the darkest of times and great suffering. I have visited the community on a number of occasions.

All of the killings in the North were an atrocity, but Bloody Sunday stands out in many ways for the wrong reasons because it was a normal day and peaceful protest. What we saw in documentaries about Bloody Sunday is etched in many people's minds, along with many other events that we remember for, unfortunately, the wrong reasons. We know that 14 people died in Derry - 13 were killed outright while the death of another man four months later was attributed to his injuries. Many of the victims were shot while fleeing from soldiers and some were shot while trying to help the wounded. Other protesters were injured by rubber bullets or batons, and two were run down by British Army vehicles while others were beaten.

The march had been organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association to protest against interment without trial. It was its absolute right, as it is the right of any group, to hold a peaceful protest, in particular when people were suffering under such injustice and a harsh regime at the time. The soldiers that carried out the atrocity were from the first battalion of the parachute regiment, the same battalion implicated in the Ballymurphy massacre several months earlier. I watched a documentary on that very recently. What happened there was absolutely horrendous, and there are many unanswered questions for families caught up in that who suffered. At one point a priest ran across the green in Ballymurphy and was gunned down. What happened was shocking.

There are questions which need to be answered. We need to ensure that the British Government is held accountable and an amnesty is not the answer. It is not acceptable. It will deepen the wounds of so many suffering families. We need answers, and we need to make sure the Government asks questions and get answers from the British Government.

See this speech in context