Bloody Sunday offer 'an insult'

The authorities have offered compensation to the families of 13 people shot dead in Bloody Sunday in 1972 and to those who were injured in the incident, it has emerged.

Sums of £50,000 have been offered to people in both categories by the Ministry of Defence, but the amounts appear unlikely to satisfy those involved. One family has already described the offer as an insult.

Negotiations between the ministry and families have been going on for months, in the wake of David Cameron’s 2010 apology and declaration that the shootings by paratroops were “unjustified and unjustifiable”.

Meanwhile, the possibility of a political crisis was reduced in Belfast when a one-time IRA bomber was released by police after being held for questioning about a recent shooting. High-profile republican Sean Kelly was convicted of the Shankill bombing of 1993, when nine Protestant civilians and an IRA member died when an IRA bomb exploded prematurely.