Bloody Sunday: ‘Our peace walls have been raised higher, not torn down’

Fifty years ago this weekend, Britain’s 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment opened fire on a civil rights march in Derry, killing 13 innocent people. Our wounds have never been allowed to heal, writes Leona O’Neill

Father Edward Daly, later Bishop of Derry, waves a blood-stained white handkerchief at soldiers as a mortally wounded protester is carried away, on 30 January 1972 (Daily Mail/Shutterstock)

The Northern Ireland of today has come a long way from the grim and grainy black and white pictures on the television showing streets on fire and angry young men in flares rioting with the police. Now we’re known for Game of Thrones and Jamie Dornan and, well, also riots.

We might have had an image change in recent years, but the ghosts of the past still haunt us here. We still drag around our invisible baggage of hurt, division and distrust accumulated over generations. Our peace walls have been raised higher, not torn down. And every so often the scab is ripped off our collective wound and someone pours salt in it.

Yet life continues as normal. People go to work and school. Business and tourism are buzzing. The dark days of the past, when they arrive, stand out with glaring irregularity now. These are different times. We have come so far. We have fought so much to get as close to normal as our society will allow. We don’t ever want to go back. We are afforded hope now.