BRITISH PRIME minister David Cameron offered assurances that he would “say what needed to be said” about Bloody Sunday before knowing the contents of the Saville Report, an Oireachtas committee has heard.
Former SDLP leader Mark Durkan, an MP and MLA, said Mr Cameron also revealed he would call the city “Derry” a week before he delivered his House of Commons statement in June.
“He had assured me that whatever was said in the report, he would say what needed to be said as British prime minister, and he also said he would say the word . . . ‘Derry’,” Mr Durkan said.
British prime ministers normally refer to the city as Londonderry, which Mr Cameron also did.
Mr Durkan added: “David Cameron’s statement only has the currency it has precisely because it is based on the clear verdicts on the behaviour of the soldiers that came out of the Saville Inquiry.”
Relatives of Bloody Sunday victims appeared before the committee on the implementation of the Belfast Agreement in Leinster House. They were Michael McKinney, Gerry Duddy and John Kelly – who all lost brothers on Bloody Sunday – and Tony Doherty, whose father was shot.
Fourteen people died as a result of the British Parachute Regiment opening fire in Derry’s Bogside on January 30th, 1972.
Mr McKinney said: “Lord Saville has told the world that what we have been saying for 38 years is actually true.”
Mr Duddy said June 15th, when the statement was delivered, was “one of the happiest days of my life but also one of the saddest days”.
Mr Kelly said a “process of healing” was under way in Derry. He welcomed that representatives of Protestant churches had come to meet families in the Bogside.
Committee chairman Noel Treacy (Fianna Fáil) said Northern secretary Owen Paterson would be invited to address the committee.
