Derry rally to ‘Bin the Legacy Bill’ ahead of amnesty’s second reading in British House of Lords

The protest will take place at 1pm in Guildhall Square under the banner 'Bin the Legacy Bill'.

It will take place prior to the second reading of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill in the British House of Lords from 3pm on Wednesday afternoon.

The Trust, and victims’ groups, are vehemently opposed to the bill which is being fast-tracked through the British parliament by the Conservative Government.

The legislation proposes a statute of limitations for all Troubles-related killings in line with a Conservative election manifesto pledge in 2019 which explicitly stated that it will ‘introduce new legislation to tackle the vexatious legal claims that undermine our Armed Forces and further incorporate the Armed Forces Covenant into law’.

At a protest in August John Kelly, whose brother Mickey was shot dead on Bloody Sunday, told the ‘Journal’: “There is only one thing that we demand and that is justice for our people.

“Our people were murdered by British security forces and many people out there on all sides have lost loved ones and are entitled to justice."

Though, consecutive British Secretaries of State, Shailesh Vara and now Chris Heaton-Harris, have said the bill is open to amendment, Mr. Kelly said: “There is only one amendment to it which is to abolish it, drop it and just do the right thing.”

DUP MP Gregory Campbell, separately, has said the British government’s legacy bill is ‘doomed to failure’ if it does not have the support of the relatives of those ‘murdered by terrorists’.

"Has the Secretary of State accepted the cold, hard fact that to have any legitimacy the final outcome of the legacy Bill needs the support of innocent victims and relatives of those murdered by terrorists, just as in the wider political realm any outcome of the protocol talks needs support across the community or it, too, will be doomed to failure?” he asked Chris Heaton-Harris earlier this month.

Vara promises amendments, victims demand he drop amnesty ‘bill of shame’