53rd anniversary of Bloody Sunday: Derry a beacon of hope in a dark world

And in that silence is a story of terrible injustice, horror, self-sacrifice and tenacity that has gone on to inspire people who have been victimised, dispossessed and downtrodden across the world.

The humanity of the victims has never been forgotten either by those who knew and loved them nor by the successive generations who have stood with those relatives.

Indeed, for those of us born since that terrible day in Derry on January 30, 1972, we can still get a real sense of who those innocent boys and men were, how special each of them was, how much they were treasured and how much they are missed.

It is those stories of their lives, cut cruelly short, that the families have related so many times, however painful and traumatic it has been to do so that has led to so many others being inspired to campaign for their loved ones too.

A lot has changed in Derry and the world in the intervening decades but remembering those victims and remembering Bloody Sunday remains as vital today as it was when the families first linked arms and began their long campaign to achieve justice.

And in those years they have used their platform to provide a space in which others suffering grave injustices around the world can have their voices heard. This year once again, the atrocities visited on the people of Palestine and their struggle will take centre stage. Their voices have been ignored and silenced repeatedly on a global stage too but in Derry we know that however long it takes, the truth will always win out.