Cameron's statement to help healing, says Ahern

IRISH POLITICAL REACTION:"A GREAT wrong has been corrected," said Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin.

The report’s conclusions had rewarded the “perseverance, determination and dedication” of families searching for truth, Mr Martin said.

He described as “clear and unequivocal” the conclusion that the events of Bloody Sunday were “unjustified and unjustifiable”.

The main findings together with the apology by British prime minister David Cameron underlined that “we have all turned an important page,” he said.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said families of the victims should be “foremost” in thoughts as the names of their loved ones were yesterday “cleared of wrongdoing”.

The crucial finding was that British troops were responsible for firing the first shot, he said.

He hoped this conclusion would provide “some measure of comfort” for families who had fought to have events thoroughly investigated and responsibility assigned.

He welcomed the “significant” apology by Mr Cameron for the behaviour of the British army.

The leader of the Labour party Eamon Gilmore described the report as a “shocking and stark indictment” of the conduct of British troops on Bloody Sunday.

It was also an “unqualified vindication of those who died at their hands,” he said in a statement.

He hoped that the report’s publication would bring “some sort of closure” for the families and that Mr Cameron’s “expression of deep sorrow” would “help to heal the wounds of Bloody Sunday”.

The report was a “good justification for the long struggle of the families”, said former taoiseach Bertie Ahern who was in office when the inquiry was established.

The wait for the report and Mr Cameron’s statement was a “huge part in the process of healing” and was the reason his government had “put so much pressure” on then prime minister Tony Blair to set up the inquiry, he said.

“I think all of us who lived on the island of Ireland remember the day, remember our own emotions on the day, I remember it well. I remember the protests that followed; the burning of the British Embassy.

“It had huge significance and hopefully this puts a lot of the emotion around that to rest and we can move on with what has been a very good peace process for the last number of years,” said Mr Ahern.