Solidarity messages were received from Ireland…

First one from Eamonn McCann, a leading Irish journalist, socialist and one of the legendary figures in the country’s civil rights movement…

On January 30 1972, British paratroopers opened fire on unarmed civil rights demonstrators in Derry in Northern Ireland, killing 14 people and wounding 14 others. The day has become known in Ireland as Bloody Sunday.

Some of us who had been on the demonstration on Bloody Sunday have campaigned since for the truth to be told and justice achieved for the victims. I served as chairman of the Bloody Sunday Trust, which has been at the heart of the campaign. After 38 years, on June 15th 2010, we finally forced the Government of David Cameron to admit that the massacre had been carried out by British soldiers and had been “unjustified and unjustifiable”. This was a great success for the campaign and a great joy for the families of the victims.

But the massacre had further poisoned relations between the Nationalist (Catholic) and Unionist (Protestant) communities in Northern Ireland. This enabled the British State to blame all violence on “religious differences” among the mass of the people and to claim that its forces were neutral and had to stand between the “warring communities” and keep them apart.

Numerous attacks on the Catholic community over the last four decades were blamed on the Protestant community. But many of these have now been PROVEN to have been set up by the British intelligence services. These attacks have included the murder of civil rights lawyers and community leaders.