As Dusk fell in Derry last night, several thousand people walked in a silent torchlight procession to the city's Guildhall as a gesture of support for the relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims in their demand for truth and justice.
The procession started from Free Derry Corner in the Bogside, just yards from where 28 people were shot, 14 of them fatally, by the British army's Parachute Regiment on December 30th, 1972. Families and relatives of the dead, and a number of those who were wounded but survived, were prominent in the demonstration on the eve of today's formal opening of the new Bloody Sunday inquiry.
Community representatives and local politicians, including Mr Martin McGuinness and Mr Mitchel McLaughlin of Sinn Fein, walked with the people of Derry in the procession, which was led by young people carrying photographs of the Bloody Sunday dead.
In Guildhall Square, outside the historic civic building where Lord Saville's tribunal will hold prolonged oral hearings, a brief rally was held. Its 20-minute duration, organisers said, was intended "to reflect the length of time it took the Parachute Regiment to murder 14 of our citizens and inflict serious wounds upon many others".
"Everything is now in place here in Derry to lay out the truth at last. We will watch, and the world will watch closely, as the tribunal proceeds," said Mr Eamonn McCann, journalist and author, opening the proceedings.
The only address was given by Mr Conor Duddy, a nephew of 17-year-old Jackie Duddy who died in the soldiers' fusillade. He read the text of a Charter for Truth and Justice which has been signed by up to 400 individuals and groups.
It insisted that the inquiry should be fully independent, impartial and open. It said the community demanded that the full truth be established, and it called for a clear repudiation of the findings of the Widgery tribunal and a formal, explicit acknowledgement of the innocence of all those killed and wounded on Bloody Sunday.