Bloody Sunday and the Rule of Law in Northern Ireland

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

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2. Bloody Sunday

   • Dermot P. J. Walsh

   Pages 1-14

3. The Road to Bloody Sunday

   • Dermot P. J. Walsh

   Pages 15-53

4. The Widgery Inquiry

   • Dermot P. J. Walsh

   Pages 54-84

5. A Flawed Report

   • Dermot P. J. Walsh

   Pages 85-112

6. The Soldiers’ Statements

   • Dermot P. J. Walsh

   Pages 113-156

7. Lethal Force and the Law

   • Dermot P. J. Walsh

   Pages 157-214

8. Law and Security Policy since Bloody Sunday

   • Dermot P. J. Walsh

   Pages 215-282

9. The Path to Justice

   • Dermot P. J. Walsh

   Pages 283-313

10. Back Matter

    Pages 314-349

    PDF

Drawing on original research into explosive evidence which had been concealed for twenty-five years, this book offers a devastating critique of the official Widgery Inquiry into the massacre of innocent and unarmed civilians by British soldiers on Bloody Sunday. It exposes the Inquiry as a gross denial of justice and the rule of law. Expert analysis of the subordination of law to security policy in Northern Ireland reveals that the Bloody Sunday experience is an integral part of a sustained pattern. Belated prospects for a restoration of justice and the rule of law are found in the Good Friday Peace Agreement and the unprecedented establishment of a second Tribunal of Inquiry into Bloody Sunday.

• law
• Policy
• research
• restoration
• state
• British Politics

'This book is a meticulously researched analysis of a seismic event in Northern Ireland's history and a searing indictment of legal and security policies applied in Northern Ireland in the years which followed. Not everyone will agree with the views expressed, but they are cogently and authoritatively presented. In future studies of the legal system of Northern Ireland there will need to be extensive references to Walsh's arguments.' - Professor Brice Dickson, Chief Commissioner in the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

• Centre for Criminal Justice, University of Limerick, Ireland

  Dermot P. J. Walsh

DERMOT WALSH was appointed Chair of Law at the University of Limerick in 1996 where he is also Director of the Centre for Criminal Justice. He is a visiting Professor to the University of San Diego's Institute of International and Comparative Law and is a former President of the Irish Association of Law Teachers. He is the author of The Use and Abuse of Emergency Legislation in Northern Ireland (1983) and The Irish Police: A Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Perspective (1998). His report The Bloody Sunday Tribunal of Inquiry: A Resounding Defeat for Truth, Justice and the Rule of Law formed a primary component of the Irish government's Report on Bloody Sunday to the British government which, in turn, was instrumental in persuading the British government to establish the Saville Tribunal of Inquiry into Bloody Sunday in 1998.