🔗 Share this article

Sunday 30 January 1972 is remembered as among the deadliest – and significant – dates throughout multiple decades of unrest in this area.

In the streets where events unfolded – the legacy of the tragic events are visible on the walls and embedded in public consciousness.

A public gathering was conducted on a cold but bright day in the city.

The protest was a protest against the policy of detention without trial – imprisoning people without trial – which had been put in place after three years of violence.

Troops from the Parachute Regiment killed 13 people in the district – which was, and continues to be, a strongly republican area.

A specific visual became particularly iconic.

Pictures showed a clergyman, Fr Edward Daly, displaying a blood-stained white handkerchief as he tried to shield a crowd transporting a young man, the fatally wounded individual, who had been killed.

Media personnel recorded extensive video on the day.

Documented accounts features Fr Daly informing a journalist that troops "gave the impression they would discharge weapons randomly" and he was "completely sure" that there was no justification for the discharge of weapons.

This account of what happened was disputed by the first inquiry.

The first investigation concluded the military had been fired upon initially.

During the negotiation period, the administration commissioned a fresh examination, in response to advocacy by bereaved relatives, who said the initial inquiry had been a cover-up.

That year, the report by Lord Saville said that generally, the soldiers had fired first and that zero among the casualties had presented danger.

At that time Prime Minister, the Prime Minister, apologised in the government chamber – stating deaths were "improper and unjustifiable."

Law enforcement commenced examine the incident.

An ex-soldier, known as Soldier F, was brought to trial for homicide.

Indictments were filed over the killings of the first individual, twenty-two, and twenty-six-year-old another victim.

The defendant was additionally charged of seeking to harm several people, Joseph Friel, more people, an additional individual, and an unnamed civilian.

Remains a legal order protecting the defendant's anonymity, which his lawyers have claimed is essential because he is at threat.

He testified the Saville Inquiry that he had exclusively discharged his weapon at people who were carrying weapons.

That claim was disputed in the official findings.

Material from the inquiry could not be used straightforwardly as evidence in the legal proceedings.

In court, the veteran was shielded from sight using a blue curtain.

He addressed the court for the first time in the proceedings at a hearing in December 2024, to reply "not guilty" when the accusations were put to him.

Relatives of the victims on that day travelled from the city to Belfast Crown Court each day of the proceedings.

One relative, whose sibling was died, said they always knew that hearing the trial would be painful.

"I visualize everything in my mind's eye," the relative said, as we walked around the primary sites mentioned in the trial – from the location, where his brother was shot dead, to the nearby Glenfada Park, where one victim and the second person were died.

"It returns me to my position that day.

"I helped to carry Michael and lay him in the medical transport.

"I relived the entire event during the testimony.

"Despite experiencing everything – it's still worthwhile for me."