For those who aren't aware, 50 years ago today British paratroopers opened fire on a civil rights march in Derry, Ireland, killing 14. As described in this excellent New Statesman article:
" The press was briefed that “the army is going in hard”. In testimony to Saville’s inquiry, one soldier recalled his lieutenant saying: “Let’s teach these buggers a lesson – we want some kills.”
They got them. Some protesters began rioting in front of the army’s barricades. Midway through the afternoon two companies of paras with blackened faces burst through those barricades and chased the protesters. In little more than ten minutes they fired more than 100 rounds. Protesters fell. Amid the panic and pandemonium priests administered the Last Rites, others first aid. “I remember being more terrified than I’d ever been in my life before,” said Denis Bradley, a local priest. One man was shot trying to reach his dead son, another as he sought to help one of the injured. “He took something white and stepped out,” one eyewitness said. “He turned around and then he was shot in the head. I remember his head exploding and his eye coming out, and I went hysterical.” Edward Daly, a priest who later became Bishop of Derry, recalled “two or three soldiers in the kneeling position firing, down on one knee and firing… They seemed to be very elated and very excited.” Others remembered soldiers breaking into a house where an injured woman lay and shouting: “Let the whore bleed to death.”
What followed was scarcely less shocking. Witnesses said the paras revelled in the carnage. They were heard whooping. They chucked the dead into their Saracen armoured vehicles with minimal respect. At the hospital they “were joking with each other and laughing and talking about the events of the day as the bodies were carried”, Ivan Cooper, a politician and civil rights activist at the time, told Campbell. “They were jubilant.”
Back at their base, according to a doctor’s son who lived nearby, they “stood around boasting to each other about what they’d done that day, mimicking the actions of shooting with their guns and things. There was no shame. They were cock-a-hoop at a great job.”
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/history/2022/01/why-the-wounds-of-bloody-sunday-have-not-healed-50-years-on
None of the troops were ever held to legal account though the Brit government, after 35+ years of cover up, conceded in the Saville Report: "none of the victims “was posing a threat of causing death or serious injury”.
And: "David Cameron, then prime minister, told the House of Commons that what occurred on that day in 1972 was “unjustified and unjustifiable”. He apologised on behalf of the government and country, and said that “what happened should never, ever have happened”.
This is embarrassing history for Brit apologists and defenders of the occupation and repression in the Six Counties, but it is history that still leaves a mark.
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@no1marauder saidYes, The Brits, as with The US, ain't got
For those who aren't aware, 50 years ago today British paratroopers opened fire on a civil rights march in Derry, Ireland, killing 14. As described in this excellent New Statesman article:
" The press was briefed that “the army is going in hard”. In testimony to Saville’s inquiry, one soldier recalled his lieutenant saying: “Let’s teach these buggers a lesson – we want ...[text shortened]... rs of the occupation and repression in the Six Counties, but it is history that still leaves a mark.
the best record of 'spreading democracy.'
We got KENT STATE.........Anyone held for that>?
@trev33 saidNot yet; planning on next August for the ND-Navy game in Dublin.
@no1marauder
Have you ever been to Ireland?
Why? Is this another "Americans can't comment on Europe" but "Euros can on the US" fallacious argument?
@trev33 saidYes, both the Republic of and Northern. The day is not forgotten.
@no1marauder
Have you ever been to Ireland?
@athousandyoung saidDaredevil deserved better.
Also this guy from Boardwalk Empire:
[youtube BE IRA man]_MnXBNOqkwk[/youtube]
@no1marauder saidIt was bloody attrocious.
For those who aren't aware, 50 years ago today British paratroopers opened fire on a civil rights march in Derry, Ireland, killing 14. As described in this excellent New Statesman article:
" The press was briefed that “the army is going in hard”. In testimony to Saville’s inquiry, one soldier recalled his lieutenant saying: “Let’s teach these buggers a lesson – we want ...[text shortened]... rs of the occupation and repression in the Six Counties, but it is history that still leaves a mark.
The ulster unionists and their even more extreme sub-groups are a monster created by the English ruling class.
Although, dive into Britain’s anti-Catholic history (starting with Henry VIII and his first divorce) and you open up a whole can of nasty.
I mean, in the South of England, during Guy Fawkes night (november 5th) they still burn effigies of the pope.
@shavixmir saidThat’s another black lie you’d have to go to East Glasgow or East Belfast if you want to see a pope effigy being burned.
It was bloody attrocious.
The ulster unionists and their even more extreme sub-groups are a monster created by the English ruling class.
Although, dive into Britain’s anti-Catholic history (starting with Henry VIII and his first divorce) and you open up a whole can of nasty.
I mean, in the South of England, during Guy Fawkes night (november 5th) they still burn effigies of the pope.
In the south of England we generally burn effigies of Guy Fawkes a Catholic zealot sent by the Pope to blow up Parliament and the Scottish Protestant royal family. That’s kind of why we call November the 5th ‘Guy Fawkes Night’.
Maybe someone could crunch the numbers regarding who burnt the most humans Catholics or Protestants.
“ It was bloody attrocious”
If you had stopped here and resisted your anti English bigotry urges you could have remained concise.and correct.
@vivify saidCouldn’t agree more but I would expand that to the whole fing Abrahamic family and I’m not overly impressed with Hinduism either with its caste system.
Regardless of the answer, Christianity is one of the worst plagues ever unleashed on mankind.
@no1marauder saidDang, that IS the guy from Daredevil, isn't it?
Daredevil deserved better.
Didn't recognize him the first time.
@vivify saidDammit, man, it's not the religion, but some of those who have tried to hide behind the religion. Religions aren't evil, but man can be.
Regardless of the answer, Christianity is one of the worst plagues ever unleashed on mankind.