🔗 Share this article

January 30th, 1972 is remembered as among the most deadly – and momentous – occasions throughout multiple decades of violence in the region.

Throughout the area where it happened – the legacy of that fateful day are displayed on the buildings and embedded in people's minds.

A protest demonstration was conducted on a cold but bright day in the city.

The march was challenging the practice of imprisonment without charges – imprisoning people without due process – which had been implemented after three years of violence.

Military personnel from the Parachute Regiment killed 13 people in the Bogside area – which was, and continues to be, a predominantly nationalist community.

One image became notably iconic.

Images showed a Catholic priest, Father Daly, waving a stained with blood fabric while attempting to defend a crowd moving a teenager, Jackie Duddy, who had been killed.

Media personnel documented considerable film on the day.

Historical records features the priest telling a reporter that soldiers "just seemed to fire in all directions" and he was "completely sure" that there was no justification for the gunfire.

That version of events was rejected by the initial investigation.

The Widgery Tribunal found the soldiers had been shot at first.

During the resolution efforts, the administration set up another inquiry, after campaigning by surviving kin, who said Widgery had been a inadequate investigation.

In 2010, the report by the investigation said that on balance, the soldiers had discharged weapons initially and that not one of the casualties had been armed.

The then head of state, the Prime Minister, issued an apology in the government chamber – saying fatalities were "without justification and unjustifiable."

The police started to investigate the incident.

An ex-soldier, known as the accused, was brought to trial for killing.

He was charged over the fatalities of James Wray, twenty-two, and twenty-six-year-old the second individual.

The accused was also accused of seeking to harm Patrick O'Donnell, additional persons, Joe Mahon, Michael Quinn, and an unknown person.

Exists a judicial decision protecting the defendant's anonymity, which his legal team have argued is required because he is at risk of attack.

He testified the Saville Inquiry that he had solely shot at persons who were possessing firearms.

This assertion was disputed in the final report.

Evidence from the inquiry was unable to be used directly as testimony in the legal proceedings.

In court, the defendant was shielded from sight using a protective barrier.

He made statements for the opening instance in the hearing at a hearing in December 2024, to reply "not guilty" when the accusations were read.

Family members of the deceased on Bloody Sunday made the trip from Derry to the judicial building every day of the trial.

A family member, whose sibling was killed, said they understood that listening to the proceedings would be emotional.

"I can see everything in my recollection," the relative said, as we visited the main locations referenced in the case – from the street, where his brother was fatally wounded, to the adjacent Glenfada Park, where one victim and another victim were fatally wounded.

"It reminds me to my position that day.

"I participated in moving the victim and lay him in the vehicle.

"I experienced again the entire event during the evidence.

"Notwithstanding having to go through everything – it's still meaningful for me."