Provocative flags hoisted ahead of Bloody Sunday weekend

Posted by Jim on January 27, 2018

The sister of a man shot dead on Bloody Sunday has said the erection of
flags for the British Army’s Parachute Regiment outside Derry is “blind
sectarianism”.

The flags were put on lampposts in Newbuildings ahead of this weekend’s
Bloody Sunday commemorations.

Paratroopers were responsible for killing 14 people in Derry on January
30, 1972, and injuring many others during an anti-internment rally.

Kate Nash’s 19-year-old brother William died and her father Alex was
wounded on the day.

She said the flags were “designed to hurt people'”

“It is just blind sectarianism to taunt people. You wouldn’t do it. It
is hurtful. I am not paying any attention to it,” she said.

“It would disturb you. And I’m not going to let it disturb me. I have
more important things to do.

“I abhor sectarianism and I know that it is just done to hurt people,
and I’m just not even going to think about it.”

DUP MP Gregory Campbell denied the flags were sectarian, claiming they
were a reaction to bonfires and parades in the Bogside last summer.

“I don’t know about this occasion, but on previous occasions what has
happened is that a small number of individuals have put up Parachute
Regiment flags and they were in response to something that was done
either in the Bogside or around bonfires or around parades, such as the
12th of August,” he said.

BLOODY SUNDAY DISARRAY

Meanwhile, three republican groups have now pulled out of events to mark
the 46th anniversary of Bloody Sunday this weekend over what has been
described as an irrelevant and potentially hostile political agenda.

The decision by Republican Sinn Fein, the IRSP and Saoradh was prompted
after organisers produced a poster which listed a British mercenary
soldier who died in the conflict, William Best, alongside massacres
caused by the British forces of occupation.

IRSP spokesman Michael Kelly said that following “an emotive internal
debate, the Irish Republican Socialist Party have concluded that they
will not attend this year’s Bloody Sunday march, nor participate in any
events associated with the currently constituted Bloody Sunday
committee”.

He also expressed concern that some campaign groups have been denied
speaking rights in the past.

Republican Sinn Fein said in a statement that its concerns had not been
taken seriously by the Bloody Sunday Committee.

“After long and considered consultation with our membership we have
decided that it is impossible for us to attend this year’s Bloody Sunday
March, giving the anti-republican message expressed by the creation of
the official poster advertising the march, and which has been on display
this past week during events run by the Bloody Sunday Committee in Derry
City in relation to the march,” they said.

“It was important for us to give consideration to the opinions of the
republican community in Derry, who expressed similar concerns and
ultimately have taken the same decision.”

Saoradh spokesman Packy Carty confirmed the party will hold its own
wreath laying and anti-internment rally today [Saturday].

He said the original Bloody Sunday parade was organised to highlight
internment.

“Until such a time as the Bloody Sunday March returns to its roots, we,
as a movement, will mark the anniversary and continue to highlight
modern British internment and ongoing political repression,” he said.