Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Given the week we are in, I wish to raise the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday events this year. It is ironic that the 50th anniversary falls on a Sunday. The Bloody Sunday Trust in Derry has duly titled its work One World-One Struggle and has organised events from this Thursday, 27 January, until Sunday, 30 January. I ask people to engage with those events over that four-day period. A play titled The White Handkerchief will take place at 4 p.m., the time of the shootings 50 years ago in 1972. I saw some very good interviews during the week, including one with Denis Bradley, a great man who was there on the day. I ask for the support of the House in offering our support to the committees and organisations in the efforts they are making to get truth and justice about all that happened, the cold-blooded murder and shootings that took place on behalf of the British Government by British armed forces.

We should also offer our support in opposing the amnesty proposed by the British Government. In light of this, and in light of the discussions on the amnesty, I ask that we have a debate in the House and invite the Minister for Foreign Affairs to have a discussion around the Bloody Sunday events and other legacy issues in dealing with the past. It is a very sore point when it comes to dealing with Northern Ireland and what took place over those decades of struggle. It would be timely to have a debate on it.