Nearly 50 years ago, on February 2nd 1972, I was part of a demonstration outside the British Embassy in Dublin. The large crowd, estimated at between 20,000 and 30,000, had assembled to protest the killing of 13 unarmed civilians by members of the British Army’s Parachute Regiment in Derry. It seemed like the least that should be done to protest that massacre. Following three days of demonstrations, petrol bombs were thrown along with stones and missiles, flags were burned and eventually the Embassy was set on fire and destroyed. Other buildings were also attacked and burned. The demonstrations and the burnings were not simply about what had happened in Derry but were more broadly about the British Government’s response and its overall behaviour. As was evidenced later (following multiple investigations and tribunals), the Government lied about the event, falsely claiming that the soldiers had come under fire first and were simply protecting themselves. It was but one act in the dark and vicious history known euphemistically in Ireland as the ‘Troubles’ in which 3,700 plus people died, over 50% of them civilian. There were many other such acts of killing, the majority...
