DERRY JOURNAL Editorial: Bloody Sunday commander Mike Jackson helped murder the truth at Bloody Sunday and Ballymurphy

​Mike Jackson, adjutant of 1 PARA on January 30, 1972, died this week aged 80. Like Derek Wilford, 1 PARA commander, who died (90) last November, and Frank Kitson, who was in overall command of the battalion and died (97) in January, he lived to a ripe old age, a privilege not afforded the 14 victims.

As well as being second-in-command of I PARA Jackson was a British Army spin doctor. At Ballymurphy, when 10 people were shot dead in August 1971, Jackson was the ‘military press liaison officer’ who put out the official line that smeared the dead and was swallowed with typical credulity by much of the British media.

The black lies kept coming. On Bloody Sunday Jackson compiled a ‘shot list’ based on information provided by Edward Loden, commander of 1 PARA’s Support Company and his men. Under the heading ‘GUNBATTLE’ it referred to 15 fictional engagements with invented spectres: nine gunmen, seven nail bombers, a bomber and a petrol bomber. Another calumniation, it was again reported widely by a wilful or oblivious British Press. The smell of cordite was still hanging in the Bogside air when on February 1, 1972, Tory minister Robert Lindsay used it to lie to MPs and tell them the Paras had acted ‘in self-defence or in defence of their comrades who were threatened’.”

Parachute Regiment commander Frank Kitson has died

On the 50th anniversary of the massacre John Kelly, whose brother Michael was murdered, reminded the world that the 15th murder was the ‘murder of the truth’. Jackson played a pivotal role in that. Our thoughts are with all the victims.

Parachute Regiment commander on Bloody Sunday Derek Wilford has died