Nine-year-old Tony Doherty was playing marbles outside his home in the Brandywell in Derry on January 30th, 1972, when a friend told him that his father had been shot at the anti-internment rally.
The child didn't believe his friend and threatened to beat him up if he was telling lies. But it was true - his father, Paddy Doherty, was one of Bloody Sunday's 14 victims.
Yesterday, Tony Doherty expressed a "mixture of feelings" at the inquiry announcement. "I'm not sure quite how I feel. I am glad there will be an inquiry. I welcome Mr Blair's decision. But my satisfaction is tinged with profound sadness.
"Bloody Sunday should not have happened in the first place and it should not have been treated in the way it was afterwards. The whole event should have been sorted out a long time ago and people put out of their misery. But we are pleased with the establishment of a new inquiry and we will play a full part in it. We don't want an ineffective tribunal. We want everything on the table so that the truth can finally come out."
Ms Kay Duddy, whose brother, John, was killed, said she hoped that the truth could at last be established.
"I want the whole world and his mother to know that my brother was 100 per cent innocent. That is important so we can lay him to rest with the peace and dignity he deserves."
Mr Finbarra O Dochartaigh, one of the founding members of the civil rights movement in Derry, said Mr Blair's announcement marked a victory for democracy but showed that the British government had always to be forced into action.
"The British government did not do this voluntarily. It took 26 years of hard work by relatives, and 26 years of national and international pressure."
Mr John Kelly, whose brother, Michael, was one of the victims, said he hoped the inquiry could lead to "a healing process and closure". He added: "The events of Bloody Sunday were a watershed in the course of Irish history which led to two generations losing faith in the administration of justice and the rule of law.
"We hope for a resolution of the outstanding travesty of Bloody Sunday and the creation of a new beginning in British-Irish relations."
The DUP's security spokesman, Mr Gregory Campbell, who was in Guildhall Square on January 30th, 1972, to watch the civil rights marchers, said last night: "Bloody Sunday has once again taken centre-stage. We feel as if the deaths of Protestants are not important. All this public and media hype about Bloody Sunday makes us feel ignored. It is polarising rather than uniting the community.
"I understand that close relatives might welcome this inquiry but I don't know why the nationalist community in general is being so vocal. These are the people who are always preaching at Protestants not to live in the past."
Mr Campbell, an 18-year-old shop assistant at the time of the shootings, said he believed that while British paratroopers might have "overreacted", they were not guilty of "wilful murder".
"The protesters were on an illegal march. They were breaking the law. They were trying to wreck the state and the state had the right to use whatever force was necessary to protect itself. I don't know what good an inquiry will do."
He said he felt "nothing" for the victims. "I didn't feel anything when I heard of the shootings and I still don't. The people killed were from the Bogside and the Creggan. They weren't from the Protestant community. We didn't know them and we didn't identify with them."
Mr Jim Simpson, from the Waterside, said: "It's the same old story in this country. Nobody wants to know about Protestant victims. You have to be a Catholic before anyone sympathises with you. Nationalists held an illegal demonstration on Bloody Sunday. People knew what they were getting into before they went out."
Among those who attended a press conference in Derry organised by the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign to welcome the inquiry was Dr Edward Daly, the retired Bishop of Derry who tended the wounded and dying.
Dr Daly said he hoped the inquiry would officially establish everything about Bloody Sunday. "Certainly my initial response is one of welcome. It was wonderful to hear a British Prime Minister speak about the situation in the way he did and about the events of that day. I hope that this tribunal will at last listen to the truth of what happened on Bloody Sunday."
He hoped it was "the beginning of the end of the campaign for the truth.