Declassified files: Under pressure British Diplomats in US felt quite ‘exposed’ over Bloody Sunday

British diplomats in the US felt ‘quite exposed’ as pressure mounted on the John Major government to call a Bloody Sunday inquiry.

Declassified files show officials at the British Embassy in Washington D.C. forwarded a letter signed by 18 powerful US congressmen calling for an inquiry to colleagues in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

The letter - signed by Richard Neal, Peter King and Joe Kennedy among others and addressed to the British Prime Minister - was faxed to the embassy at the start of April.

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“We, the undersigned, are calling for an official inquiry into the events surrounding ‘Bloody Sunday’ in Derry in the north of Ireland on January 30, 1972. On that day 25 years ago, fourteen unarmed civil rights demonstrators were killed by British soldiers at a march protesting the policy of internment without trial.

“The legacy of that day has left a terrible stain of bloodshed and pain in the north of Ireland for the past twenty five years,” the letter stated.

The congressmen noted how those killed had been completely innocent. “The time has come for their families to receive justice for their loved ones. A new inquiry must be conducted immediately to re-examine the actions taken by the British First Battalion of the Paratroop Regiment, and other regiments of the British Army, on that day,” they stated.

Anthony Cary, a diplomat in the embassy, forwarded the letter to Donald Lamont at the FCO. He wrote: “We have been expecting the pressure to build on Bloody Sunday. Representatives of the victims’ families were in Washington over St. Patrick’s Day, and held a number of meetings, including one with Congressmen Gilman, King, Manton and Neal, who are all signatories of the attached letter. I hope we shall see the reply which is sent to this letter in due course: (after the election, I imagine).

“Altogether, it would be helpful to have rather more on how the British Government is reacting to the latest allegations about Bloody Sunday. We feel quite exposed.”