Eamonn McCann to open Bloody Sunday art exhibition

Speaking in advance of the launch of 'Injustice', an art exhibition by Squarebearderry, Bloody Sunday March activist, Eamonn McCann, said the pieces evoked the environment of the streets where the Bloody Sunday massacre took place.

The public has been invited to the exhibition in Eden Place Arts' Centre, in Pilots' Row community centre, on Monday (January 23) at 7.00pm.

The exhibition will focus on Bloody Sunday: Representing the environment of Rossville, and the events of that day re-imagined through paint and contemporary imagery.

Eamonn McCann said: "The point of this exhibition is to mark the 51st Anniversary of Bloody Sunday.

"We have marched the same route every year since Bloody Sunday happened, have pledged we won’t stop until those responsible for the mass murder are brought to book.

'Injustice' by Squarebearderry in Eden Place Arts' Centre

'Bloody Sunday: Representing the environment of Rossville, and the events of that day re-imagined'

"The guilty include not just the men who pulled the triggers but those who organised and ordered the deadly fusillade - the senior officers and the politicians who stood behind them.

"The British ruling class have hoped that throwing a bunch of low-lifes to the wolves would put an end to agitation over Bloody Sunday," said Eamonn McCann.

Mr McCann added the British ruling class had "perfected this manoeuvre across the world".

He added: "First, deny that any war crime took place; then, when they can’t hold that line, claim that nobody representing the State was involved. All the blame is put on low-ranks who don’t matter to anybody important.

"General Sir Michael Jackson, who was present in the Bogside for the firing of every shot and then concocted the farrago of lies which British diplomats spread around the world in an effort to dampen down the horror of people everywhere. 

"All the bosses of the British State were involved in covering up the war crime. Jackson, who went on to become Chief of Staff,  Britain’s top soldier, was at the very heart of the evil.

"It is this which makes the slogan “Jail Jackson!” directly relevant to any consideration of Bloody Sunday."

Eamonn McCann said the Saville Report had exonerated the victims, but made no finding against the British Army itself, much less the gung-ho politicians who had cheered the killers on.

He said: "This is the pattern of imperial cover-ups everywhere. It is a measure of how much they believe they are immune from truth and decency that Jackson is set to appear on BBC tonight pontificating on the moral basis of torture in the North in the 1970s. What a sham!

"It is understandable that some who remain fully committed to the Bloody Sunday campaign feel nevertheless that the time for campaigning on the streets is gone.

"It all happened more than half a century ago. The victims have had their innocence acknowledged.  People have their lives to live. It’s time to put it in the past. We have no quarrel with that. Everybody is entitled to take whatever view they believe most reasonable. But we take a different view.

"We say that the top war-criminals should be named, shamed and put in the dock. It’s only then that we can say that truth and justice has been served. It is the British State and those who rule it who must be held to account. Otherwise, they will feel OK about doing it again."