No excuses, but never forget the context of Bloody Sunday

By Daily Mail Comment
Updated: 16:37 EST, 15 June 2010

Bloody Sunday was a shameful day in the proud history of the British Army.

For 30 minutes, in the fear and confusion of that fateful afternoon in 1972, Paratroopers policing an illegal march lost their discipline and self-control.

When the shooting was over, 13 civilians lay dead. A 14th died later in hospital.

Truly, the Saville Report into the events of 38 years ago makes devastating reading for everyone who shares the Mail's fierce admiration of our Armed Forces and our awe of the sacrifices they've made for us, from Northern Ireland to Afghanistan.

Yes, there may be many explanations for the Paras' conduct in that half-hour of mayhem and panic in Londonderry.

It must be remembered that this was a time of immense tension in Northern Ireland, when soldiers were spat at and abused daily by the Catholic population they'd been called in to protect.

Just three days earlier, two police officers had been murdered by the IRA, the latest of 68 members of the security forces to have died at the hands of terrorists in the previous 12 months.

Meanwhile, the Bloody Sunday demonstrators were no Martin Luther King peace marchers. Many were hostile. Some, including one of the victims, were armed with nail bombs. 

Cranking up the tension yet further, as Lord Saville makes clear, the IRA were shadowing the crowd (among them, armed with a sub-machine gun which he may have fired, was Martin McGuinness, now - sickeningly - Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland).

But this is explaining the context, not offering excuses. The fact is that, on this occasion, our troops fell abominably short of the high standards of discipline and restraint we expect from them, and which they almost always deliver.

Although we are slightly mystified as to how he can be so certain, Lord Saville finds that the Paras shot first, without warning or provocation. Moreover, unarmed protesters were shot as they fled or lay wounded, while many soldiers later lied about their actions.

As David Cameron (who was five at the time of the tragedy) had no choice but to say, in his dignified apology on behalf of the Government: 'What happened on Bloody Sunday was both unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong.'

True, many may question the reliability of evidence given to an inquiry that began more than a quarter of a century after the events it examined - and God alone knows why Lord Saville took 12 staggering years to prepare his report.

Countless others will point out that more than 1,000 members of the security forces were murdered in cold blood in Northern Ireland, by terrorists who have long since been released from jail.

There were no 12-year, £191million inquiries for those victims, who died defending our democracy - nor for the families of the Omagh dead, whose requests for justice were so cynically betrayed by the Labour government.

But such protests are fruitless. The bitter truth is that the Saville Inquiry was set up (and how fortuitous for Tony Blair that he's not around to reap what he has sown) as just one of a series of squalid moral compromises in the name of the peace process.

We will never know if it was necessary. But what is undeniable (apart from the fact that it made some lawyers very rich) is that Northern Ireland today is more peaceful than it's been for decades.

For this, the overwhelming glory must go to the police and 250,000 soldiers who served there, of whom all but a handful showed almost superhuman restraint.

As we illustrate on our front page, these men, and their sons and grandsons who are dying now in Afghanistan, are the true face of the British Army. And nothing can diminish the debt we owe them.