Mary White (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)

I am very privileged to make this statement today on behalf of the Green Party, Comhaontas Glas. I have a vivid memory of watching the RTE evening news on that fateful Sunday in January 1972. The events in Derry on that day proved to be a turning point for all of us living in these islands, and its consequences continued to resonate right up until earlier this month when the Saville report was finally published.

After 30 January 30 1972, Northern Ireland descended into a vortex of violence which blighted lives across the island of Ireland, across Britain and in many places beyond these islands. So many of our memories are scarred by the events which flowed from that Sunday in Derry, when British soldiers murdered many of our innocent fellow countrymen. It was the day that the last flickering hopes died for successful civil protest against the blatantly unfair discrimination in Northern Ireland which the nationalist community had suffered since 1920. For too many years after that day, the peaceful protest movement for fairness in politics, housing, jobs and social services was set to one side. Reasonable and compassionate people who were ready to engage in dialogue and compromise to find a better way were increasingly forced to pick a sectarian side and stay with it.

Put simply, sending heavily armed British paratroopers to murder unarmed, peaceful protestors lit the fuse for more than two decades of war and horror in these islands. From then on, the paramilitaries held sway and justified the intransigent elements in the British Government in their taking ever harsher and counterproductive security crackdown measures. It is impossible to overstate the importance of Lord Seville's report and the unequivocal acceptance of it by the British Government. It is a boon for lasting peace and justice in these islands.

Today, as has been said, it is a privilege to be called to speak here in Dáil Éireann and to continue to bear witness to the cruel wrong done to the 14 innocent Derry people and their families. It is a great privilege to have a chance to salute and record the courage and fortitude of the bereaved families and friends in Derry who continued to fight and hope for justice over 38 long years of heartbreak. It is an opportunity for us to thank the British Prime Minister David Cameron for the way he unequivocally endorsed the Saville report findings. It was extremely important that he totally acknowledged that not one of those shot that day did anything whatsoever to justify the British army's murderous attack.

Mr. Cameron's apology was all of 38 years late for the people of Derry and many more of us in Ireland, but it is welcome because it is heartfelt and, more importantly, it offers us the chance to move on from the shameful, mendacious whitewash that was the Widgery report. I hope and believe that Mr Cameron's response helps our chances of finally moving on from that Bloody Sunday in Derry. It is again a privilege to recall that all parties in this Dáil and Seanad have worked for 25 years for lasting peace in Northern Ireland.

I want to briefly note that the Green Party, Comhaontas Glas, from its earliest days has been an all-island party. With people like Brian Wilson MLA, Steven Agnew and Cadogan Enright, we have worked to move the debate in Northern Ireland politics to a broader and more inclusive level. I want to pledge myself and my Green Party colleagues across the island of Ireland, in conjunction with Green Party colleagues in Wales, England and Scotland, to continue this work.

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