Full Widgery Report

Report of the Tribunal appointed to inquire into the events on Sunday, 30 January 1972, which led to loss of life in connection with the procession in Londonderry on that day by The Rt. Hon. Lord Widgery, O.B.E., T.D.

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APPOINTMENT OF TRIBUNAL
TERMS OF REFERENCE
CHOICE OF LOCATION
SESSIONS OF THE TRIBUNAL
REPRESENTATION OF THE RELATIVES' INTERESTS
SOURCES OF EVIDENCE

LONDONDERRY: THE PHYSICAL BACKGROUND
SECURITY BACKGROUND: EVENTS IN LONDONDERRY DURING THE PREVIOUS SIX MONTHS
THE ARMY PLAN TO CONTAIN THE MARCH
THE MARCH AS IT HAPPENED
THE LAUNCHING OF THE ARREST OPERATION
SHOULD THE ARREST OPERATION HAVE BEEN LAUNCHED AT ALL?
THE FIRST HIGH VELOCITY ROUNDS
SUPPORT COMPANY IN ACTION
......(a) The action of Mortar Platoon in the courtyard of the Rossville Flats
......(b) The action in Rossville Street
PART THREE: RESPONSIBILITY

INTRODUCTION
A. WERE THE DECEASED CARRYING FIREARMS OR BOMBS?
.....The Deceased Considered Individually
B. WERE THE SOLDIERS JUSTIFIED IN FIRING?..

APPENDIX A: LIST OF DEAD AND INJURED
APPENDIX B: LIST OF WITNESSES
APPENDIX C: PLAN OF LONDONDERRY [extract of plan]
APPENDIX D: LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES
(C784028)

INQUIRY INTO THE EVENTS ON 30 JANUARY 1972 WHICH LED TO LOSS OF LIFE IN CONNECTION WITH THE PROCESSION IN LONDONDERRY ON THAT DAY

REPORT OF THE TRIBUNAL APPOINTED UNDER THE TRIBUNALS OF INQUIRY (EVIDENCE) ACT 1921

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE REGINALD MAUDLING, MP Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department

1. On Sunday '30 January 1972 British soldiers opened fire in the streets of Londonderry. Thirteen civilians lost their lives and a like number were injured; their names are listed in Appendix A. On the following day I accepted an invitation from Her Majesty's Government to conduct a Tribunal of Inquiry into these events. Both Houses of Parliament adopted a Resolution in the following terms on 1 February:

"That it is expedient that a Tribunal be established for inquiring into a definite matter of urgent public importance, namely the events on Sunday 30 January which led to loss of life in connection with the procession in Londonderry on that day."

In order to ensure that the powers vested in the Tribunal would extend to transferred matters under the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, as well as to matters reserved to Westminster, a Resolution in identical terms was adopted in both Houses of the Northern Ireland Parliament. The Home Secretary, The Right Honourable Reginald Maudling, signed a Warrant of Appointment on 2 February. The Warrant declared that the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act, 1921 should apply to the Tribunal and that the Tribunal was constituted as a Tribunal within the meaning of that Act. A Warrant of Appointment in identical terms was signed by the Governor of Northern Ireland, Lord Grey, on 4 February. The Secretary to the Tribunal was appointed on 6 February and left at once for Northern Ireland. Meanwhile the Treasury Solicitor's Department had already started taking statements from witnesses in London.

2. The terms of reference of the Inquiry were as stated in the Parliamentary Resolutions and the Warrants of Appointment. At a preliminary hearing on 14 February I explained that my interpretation of those terms was that the Inquiry was essentially a fact-finding exercise, by which I meant that its purpose was to reconstruct, with as much detail as was necessary, the events which led up to the shooting of a number of people in the streets of Londonderry on the afternoon of Sunday 30 January. The Tribunal was not concerned with making moral judgments; its task was to try and form an objective view of the events and the sequence in which they occurred, so that those who were concerned to form judgments would have a firm basis on which to reach their conclusions. The Tribunal would, therefore, listen to witnesses who were present on the occasion and who could assist in reconstructing the events from the evidence of what they saw with their own eyes or heard with their own ears. I wished to hear evidence from people who supported each of the versions of the events of 30 January which had been given currency.

3. I emphasised the narrowness of the confines of the Inquiry, the value of which would largely depend on its being conducted and concluded expeditiously. If considerations not directly relevant to the matters under review were allowed to take up time, the production of the Tribunal's Report would be delayed. The limits of the Inquiry in space were the streets of Londonderry in which the disturbances and the shooting took place; in time, the period beginning with the moment when the march first became involved in violence and ending with the deaths of the deceased and the conclusion of the affair.

4. At the first substantive hearing I explained that the emphasis on the importance of eye witnesses did not exclude evidence such as that of pathologists. Nor did it exclude consideration of the orders given to the Army before the march, The officers who conceived the orders and made the plans, including those for the employment of the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, would appear before me.

5. My original intention was to hold the Inquiry in Londonderry, since if it were held anywhere else the people of Londonderry might be inhibited from giving evidence. For reasons of security and convenience I reluctantly concluded that other possibilities would have to be considered; and several were. In the end I decided on Coleraine, which had these advantages: it was only about 30 miles from Londonderry, to which it was linked by a good train service; and the County Hall, which the Londonderry County Council kindly put at my disposal, was admirably suited to the job. Nowhere else in the area, except in the City of Londonderry itself, was a suitable building available. The Council Chamber, in which the Tribunal sat, contained an adequate public gallery, so that there was proper accommodation for the public, who, with the Press, were admitted to the hearings.

6. The first substantive hearing of the Tribunal was held on 21 February and I continued to sit in Coleraine until 14 March. During these 17 sessions 114 witnesses gave evidence and were cross-examined. The witnesses, who are listed in Appendix B, fell into six main groups: priests; other people from Londonderry; press and television reporters, photographers, cameramen and. sound recordists; soldiers, including the relevant officers; police officers; doctors, forensic experts and pathologists. After all the evidence had been taken three further sessions were held in the Royal Courts of Justice in London on 16, 17 and 20 March, at which I heard the closing speeches of Counsel for the relatives of the deceased, for the Army and for the Tribunal.

7. Initially there was some doubt as to whether the residents of Londonderry would be prepared to come and give evidence at the Tribunal at all, This was a matter of some concern. As the Army was to be represented by leading Counsel it was highly desirable that other interests should be represented on the same level so that cross-examination of the Army witnesses should not devolve on Counsel for the Tribunal alone. In the event this need was met by my granting legal representation to the relatives of the deceased and to those injured in the shooting, whose interest in the matter embraced that of the citizens of Londonderry generally.

8. A large quantity of material had to be examined. As has been mentioned above, the number of witnesses called was 114; but a much larger number of statements, roughly double that number, was taken, all of which were considered in arriving at a decision as to the witnesses to be called. This was in addition to the statements taken from the soldiers by the Royal Military Police on the night of 30 to 31 January. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association collected a large number of statements from people in Londonderry said to be willing to give evidence. These statements reached me at an advanced stage in the Inquiry. In so far as they contained new material, not traversing ground already familiar from evidence given before me, I have made use of them. Seven of the wounded appeared before the Tribunal and gave evidence. I did not think it necessary to take evidence from those of the wounded who were still in hospital. A particularly valuable feature of the evidence was the large number of photographs taken by professional photographers who had gone to Londonderry to cover the march*. Since it was obvious that by giving evidence soldiers and police officers might increase the dangers which they, and indeed their families, have to run, I agreed that they should appear before me under pseudonyms. This arrangement did not apply to the senior officers, who are well known in Northern Ireland. Except for the senior officers, the individual soldiers and police officers are referred to in my Report by the letter or number under which they gave evidence in the Tribunal.

* Reference is made in subsequent paragraphs to certain of these photographs, which are not, however, published as part of the Report.

1. There would have been no deaths in Londonderry on 30 January if those who organised the illegal march had not thereby created a highly dangerous situation in which a clash between demonstrators and the security forces was almost inevitable.

2. The decision to contain the march within the Bogside and Creggan had been opposed by the Chief Superintendent of Police in Londonderry but was fully justified by events and was successfully carried out.

3. If the Army had persisted in its "low key" attitude and had not launched a large scale operation to arrest hooligans the day might have passed off without serious incident.

4. The intention of the senior Army officers to use 1 Para as an arrest force and not for other offensive purposes was sincere.

5. An arrest operation carried out in Battalion strength in circumstances in which the troops were likely to come under fire involved hazard to civilians in the area which Commander 8 Brigade may have under-estimated.

6. The order to launch the arrest operation was given by Commander 8 Brigade. The tactical details were properly left to CO 1 Para who did not exceed his orders. In view of the experience of the unit in operations of this kind it was not necessary for CO 1 Para to give orders in greater detail than he did.

7. When the vehicles and soldiers of Support Company appeared in Rossville Street they came under fire. Arrests were made; but in a very short time the arrest operation took second place and the soldiers turned to engage their assailants. There is no reason to suppose that the soldiers would have opened fire if they had not been fired upon first.

8. Soldiers who identified armed gunmen fired upon them in accordance with the standing orders in the Yellow Card. Each soldier was his own judge of whether he had identified a gunman. Their training made them aggressive and quick in decision and some showed more restraint in opening fire than others. At one end of the scale some soldiers showed a high degree of responsibility; at the other, notably in Glenfada Park, firing bordered on the reckless. These distinctions reflect differences in the character and temperament of the soldiers concerned.

9. The standing orders contained in the Yellow Card are satisfactory. Any further restrictions on opening fire would inhibit the soldier from taking proper steps for his own safety and that of his comrades and unduly hamper the engagement of gunmen.

10. None of the deceased or wounded is proved to have been shot whilst handling a firearm or bomb. Some are wholly acquitted of complicity in such action; but there is a strong suspicion that some others had been firing weapons or handling bombs in the course of the afternoon and that yet others had been closely supporting them.

11. There was no general breakdown in discipline. For the most part the soldiers acted as they did because they thought their orders required it. No order and no training can ensure that a soldier will always act wisely, as well as bravely and with initiative. The individual soldier ought not to have to bear the burden of deciding whether to open fire in confusion such as prevailed on 30 January. In the conditions prevailing in Northern Ireland, however, this is often inescapable.