Operation Motorman 50 years on: Seamus Bradley anniversary to be marked in Derry

A 50th anniversary commemoration of the death of Volunteer Seamus Bradley will take place in Creggan in Derry this Sunday.
Seamus Bradley was shot and killed oin July 31, 1972 during Operation Motorman.Seamus Bradley was shot and killed oin July 31, 1972 during Operation Motorman.
Seamus Bradley was shot and killed oin July 31, 1972 during Operation Motorman.

The memorial service will take place at the Republican monument on Central Drive (pictured) on Sunday, July 31 at 1.00pm.

Mr Bradley, 19, was shot dead in the Creggan area of the city on July 31, 1972 during Operation Motorman - a military attempt to gain control of no-go zones at the height of the Troubles.

He was killed by a soldier from the Royal Scots Regiment.

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The Army claimed the Derry teenager was shot while in a tree and suffered additional injuries as he fell.

In inquest findings delivered in 2019, a coroner held that Mr Bradley was killed by a soldier who got out of a Saracen vehicle, dropped to one knee and fired a number of shots.

He said the deceased was running across open ground and clearly had no weapon.

At the time of the shooting there was no other immediate or apparent threat to the soldiers in that area.

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The coroner concluded that the use of force by the soldier who opened fire was not justified.

He also ruled that the investigation into Mr Bradley’s death was flawed and inadequate.

Those determinations were being challenged by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), but the MoD in 2021 ended its legal bid to quash a finding that the British Army’s killing of a Derry man in 1972 was unjustified.

The commemoration on Sunday has been organised by the Creggan Monument Committee.

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