Widgery Tribunal, tape 3
30 February 1972 (of event)
National Film and Television Archive
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
Actuality footage, filmed from an army helicopter, of the Bloody Sunday events in Londonderry.
The Widgery Tribunal was instigated to investigate the events of 'Bloody Sunday', 30 January 1972 in Derry where troops from the Parachute Regiment had killed 13 civil rights marchers, (a 14th person died shortly after Baron Widgery's appointment). Widgery was faced with testimony from the soldiers, who claimed they had been shot at, while the marchers insisted that no-one from the march was armed. Widgery's final took the army's side. This film was used as evidence in the House of Commons Committee headed by Lord Widgery (HC 220 1972) which investigated the events surrounding Bloody Sunday.
No titles. Aerial views of the scenes filmed from a helicopter. The film is very shakey, this together with the height of the helicopter precludes a clear picture of the scene. A crowd gathered at a road junction by a block of flats. Pan along road to other end of street with a further smaller crowd (1:04). A square of waste/recreational ground, gas/smoke rises from the road (1:26). The arrival of two army troop carriers on to the ground. They are followed down the road and across the waste ground by the camera. People disperse with the arrival of the army. The carriers stop and the troops alight. A plume of smoke rises from one of the soldiers as he fires a gas cannister (2:09). Further crowds (2:29). A barricade across a street (2:41). Crowds as seen in the opening of the film, further crowd scenes (3:30). Source: SIFT - NFTVA database.
After '68
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Statement on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry
Discrimination in Northern Ireland. A Chronology of Important Events