Deaths Come as Catholics Defy Ban on Londonderry March Soldiers Kill 13 in Londonderry as Rioting Erupts After March At least 13 persons were shot dead by British troops in Londonderry today when rioting broke out after a civil rights march held in defiance of a Government ban. It brought to 231 the number of deaths in Ulter since violence first broke out three years ago.
The bloody Sunday that claimed the lives of thirteen, young men in Londonderry was precisely what the Catholic Primate of All Ireland called it - an "awful slaughter!' It was the worst toll for one day in any city of Northern Ireland since the violence began.
The British Government has properly pledged an independent inquiry into the tragedy. In light of the fact that all the dead and nearly all the wounded were civilians, the investigation inevitably will have to look closely at the conduct of the paratroops involved in the affair. Yet, even the brief clips of the Catholic demonstration shown on American television prove beyond doubt that the provocation for the troops was deliberate and great. The demonstration itself was a self-advertised exercise in civil disobedience; a calculated violation of the ban on all parades ordered two weeks ago by the Stormont Government. The ban was aimed primarily not at the Catholic minority but at the July marches of the Orange lodges - and was bitterly resisted by the Protestant extremists.
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Source: New York Times
