Gerald Donaghey’s niece says Britain’s legacy bill will ‘shut down families' searches for truth and justice’
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Ms. Doherty was speaking at the unveiling of a mural featuring portraits of the 14 men and boys gunned down by the British Parachute Regiment in the Bloody Sunday massacre of January 30, 1972.
A portrait of her uncle Gerald Donaghey is deliberately featured prominently on the new mural due to the Saville report’s claim – denied by several witnesses during the Bloody Sunday inquiry – that nail bombs found on his person were ‘probably on him when he was shot’.
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Hide Ad"Saville cannot and will not be the last word on Bloody Sunday. Any time any person looks at or is shown this wall they ask themselves: why is this young boy so significant?
"He is significant because he is both the reminder of how our innocence was crushed and also how in his own case his innocence is still being denied,” she said.
Ms. Donaghey, who unveiled the mural at Lisfannon Park on the 13th anniversary of the publication of the Saville report, said: “No one here today needs reminded that those shot down on these streets over 50 years ago were innocent but what must be remembered is that those who planned, ordered and executed the murder of our loved ones on that day remain unaccountable for their actions.”
She reiterated her opposition to the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill which is currently at report stage in the British House of Lords and is likely to be passed by the end of the month despite cross-party opposition to its provisions in the North.
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Hide Ad"The current legacy bill being driven through the British Houses of Parliament will shut down once and for all families' searches for truth and justice,” she said.
The bill proposes a statute of limitations for all Troubles-related killings and is the fulfilment of a 2019 Conservative election manifesto pledge to ‘introduce new legislation to tackle the vexatious legal claims that undermine our Armed Forces and further incorporate the Armed Forces Covenant into law’.