John Hume Was Half-Right About Bloody Sunday
Many people today no longer care about what happened on Bloody Sunday in 1972. That’s not surprising — most weren’t even born, they don’t live in Derry or the Bogside, and more than fifty years have passed as other events took over their attention. Yet for the families — the fathers, sons, uncles, aunts, cousins, and friends of the victims — the memory remains vivid and painful.
That pain resurfaced last week when Soldier F was acquitted on all counts of murder. It took fifty-three years to bring a British soldier to trial for what occurred that day, and even then the court found him not guilty.
John Hume’s Reflection
“Many people down there feel now it’s a united Ireland or nothing. Alienation is pretty total.” — John Hume, quoted in The Irish Times.
Hume’s prediction about a united Ireland proved wrong — five decades later, the island remains divided. But he understood one thing correctly: the deep alienation that persists. After the verdict, relatives of the victims expressed only outrage and despair. Their grief found a new symbol when the iconic Free Derry mural was changed to declare, “There is no British justice.”
A Sense of Injustice
It feels almost surreal to think that, after the killings of eight innocent people in Ballymurphy, the same regiment entered the Bogside and shot another thirteen, with a fourteenth dying later. The shock remains as strong as the disbelief that justice could remain so distant after so long.
Reginald Maudling, then British Home Secretary, stated that the British army “came under fire.”
Author’s Summary
The article reflects on the lingering anger and alienation following Soldier F’s acquittal, contrasting John Hume’s view on Irish unity with the enduring pain from Bloody Sunday.
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