U.S. Media Ignores Bloody Sunday Drama

By: Greg Mitchell When it comes to the current movie Bloody Sunday the newspapers are effusive. The New York Times calls it "magnetic and impassioned," The Denver Post labels it "superb and riveting," and the San Francisco Chronicle finds it "amazing" and "a great achievement."

But when it comes to the real-life Bloody Sunday it's another matter. Few American papers, during the past week, took note of an amazing development at the ongoing official British inquiry into the Jan. 30, 1972, clash in Derry, Northern Ireland, that left 13 Irish civilians dead, after being fired on by British troops.

This is all the more surprising because the character at the center of this week's drama literally stepped out of the Bloody Sunday movie.

Bloody Sunday is widely considered the most significant event in recent Irish history. Citizen outrage over the killings led to an explosion of Irish Republic Army (IRA) militance -- and British counter-force. Thirty years and at least 3,000 lives lost later, the face-off continues today.

The shootings were the subject of an earlier British probe, known as the Widgery tribunal, which largely absolved British soldiers in the killings. Last week, a new British inquiry, which has been studying the tragedy for more than two years, finally called its most celebrated (though unnamed) witness: a man known only as "Soldier 027."

But you wouldn't know that if you've been reading almost any of the leading papers in the United States. This seems odd, given the significance of his testimony, the acclaim for the movie (expected to compete for best picture in various annual awards, quite deservedly so), and the personal threats Soldier 027 possibly faces.

Like other British soldiers at the site of the 1972 massacre, his identity was originally hidden to discourage retaliation from Catholics in Northern Ireland. But after he publicly criticized some of his fellow paratroopers for firing on unarmed demonstrators without cause, the British government directed him into a witness protection program -- to shield him from his former military colleagues.

In Paul Greengrass's Bloody Sunday, Soldier 027 figures as one of four main characters. He is portrayed as a young radio operator (19 at the time) who expresses doubts from the beginning about the wisdom of confronting Irish citizens on a civil rights march with military force. When the attack on the civilians begins, he appears anguished, does not fire his weapon, and communicates a cease-fire order from a commander -- which is widely ignored.

In the climactic scene, he is called before an army panel and asked to describe what he saw. His fellow soldiers have already concocted an explanation for their actions, alleging that the IRA fired on them and that young protestors were tossing petrol bombs their way (no soldiers were injured in the melee, incidentally). Soldier 027 appears poised to take a heroic step and expose the unjust shootings -- but he pulls back and goes along with the cover up.

Indeed, it may have happened just that way in real life. But the movie leaves it at that, in 1972. Anyone interested in what happened to Soldier 027, and the "cover-up," need look no further than this past week's testimony in London, and the chain of events that led up to it.

In fact, some have said that Soldier 027 is the main (though by no means only) reason that the current inquiry got underway at all. When he went public in 1997 with his unsparing account of what he saw on Bloody Sunday, calling the killings unprovoked, it caused a public and media clamor. Along with publication of Don Mullan's book, Eyewitness Bloody Sunday, it pressured the British government to look again at the events of January 1972, given their historical significance and long overlooked evidence that British soldiers had shot innocent civilians.

Soon the new inquiry began its work, with Soldier 027 seen as perhaps the central witness -- hence the witness protection deal to guarantee his safety.

Finally, his time to testify -- hidden behind a screen -- came on Oct. 16, in London, when he essentially (though at times haltingly) accused the "blokes" in his paratroop unit of murder. He ended his account this past Tuesday, under withering cross-examination from a pair of attorneys representing some of the other paratroopers. Now these soldiers will testify, and are expected to reject his sometimes contradictory account.

Given all this, it is astounding that the U.S. press has virtually ignored this latest chapter in the story, especially with the movie tie-in and recent order by Prime Minister Tony Blair suspending power-sharing in Northern Ireland and calling on the IRA to end all violence.

Those interested in getting up to speed on this story can start by viewing the remarkable Bloody Sunday, and checking the archives of the past week's articles at Reuters and British Web sites, such as the BBC's site (bbc.co.uk/), which offers a strong special section on Bloody Sunday.

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry Web site posts the complete transcript of each day's testimony just hours after it happens. Soldier 027's complete testimony (about 400 pages long) can be found at the site, www.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org.uk/.

Another site to consider is Newshound (http://www.nuzhound.com/), which offers daily links to Northern Ireland news.

Originally published on Oct. 25