Human rights front and centre as Derry's Bloody Sunday Trust announce 2026 commemorative events
The Bloody Sunday Trust has announced the details of this year’s Bloody Sunday commemoration, which will run from Friday, January 30 until Sunday, February 1.
On Friday, January 30 there will be a reflective event at 4.00pm at the Bloody Sunday Monument in Rossville St in memory of those murdered on Bloody Sunday. This event will also be dedicated to the children of Palestine.
The annual Bloody Sunday lecture will take place at 8.00pm that evening in Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, with an in-conversation event between former national chair of Sinn Féin and negotiator of the Good Friday Agreement, Mitchel McLaughlin, and former SDLP leader and current MP for Foyle, Colum Eastwood.
On Saturday, January 31 the Trust will host campaigners from the Stardust fire in Dublin in 1981, the Hillsborough campaign, Grenfell, Creeslough, Post Office scandal, Ballymurphy and others to discuss the particular problems faced by working class groups when they are forced to fight injustice.
This event – Punching Up: Working Class Struggles for Justice - is in the Millennium Forum at 1.00pm, and booking is available via Eventbrite.
The annual memorial service will take place at the Bloody Sunday Monument at 11am on Sunday 1 February, and will include the unveiling of a new Palestinian-themed artwork, and a new memorial plaque for Charles Love.
This will be followed by an event in the Museum of Free Derry discussing the payment of Soldier F’s legal fees by the Ministry of Defence. This event has been organised by the Pat Finucane Centre and Human Rights First and is open to all. Admission to the Museum of Free Derry will be free from 10am until 1.30pm on Sunday, February 1.
Back in October, there was heartbreak and devastation for the Bloody Sunday families when the judge in the trial of Soldier F returned a not guilty verdict following weeks of evidence in the case being presented.
Soldier F was the only British solider ever to face trail over the killings in Derry’s Bogside in 1972.
The brother of one of the two men he was acquitted of murdering at trial however said they left the Belfast courtroom with an ‘incredible sense of pride in our achievements’ despite the not guilty verdict.
It later transpired that the MoD had spent approximately £4.3 million in public funds on the legal defence of Soldier F.
Bloody Sunday Trust director Maeve McLaughlin said: “We are proud to announce this year’s programme, and to welcome to Derry the many special guests who will take part in it. As we commemorate Bloody Sunday this year we
are very mindful of the recent court case, where the judge said that the paratroopers involved in Bloody Sunday ‘should hang their heads in shame’ and also of the potential of new cases of perjury against these soldiers. We wish the families well and will support them in every step of their journey.
"As always, as we remember our dead, we are mindful of the ongoing carnage in Palestine and reiterate our call for a full ceasefire and an end to the Israeli attacks that continue to happen during this supposed ceasefire, an end to the apartheid regime and true peace and justice for the Palestinian people.”