Friday’s decision to drop murder charges against a member of the Parachute Regiment for his role on Bloody Sunday tells us that, even after 50 years, the rulers of Britain remain fearful of the full facts tumbling out.
Soldier F was a member of the death squad that went in with guns blazing as thousands milled around on Rossville Street in the Bogside area of Derry at the end of a 10,000-strong anti-internment march on 30 January 1972. In the space of 20 minutes, 13 unarmed men fell dead. Fifteen others were wounded. One of the wounded was to die from his injuries some months later.
The last thing the top brass and their political partners want is to see F, or any other member of the First Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, under cross-examination in public about what he did on the day and who gave him the go-ahead to do it.
