Trial of ex-British soldier for “Bloody Sunday” offers delayed justice, 53 years after massacre

Author: Devin Windelspecht, MSc

September 18, 2025

The trial of an ex-British soldier 53 years after the infamous Bloody Sunday massacre in Northern Ireland, which set off a series of violent events commonly known as “The Troubles,” offers the possibility of delayed justice for the 13 people killed by British soldiers who opened fire on unarmed protesters.

Family members carry photographs of two of the Bloody Sunday dead as they walk to court in Belfast on Monday for Soldier F's trial. [Image credit: Paul Faith/Getty Images].

The individual, known only as “Soldier F,” is one of 16 British soldiers who had been investigated for their role in the massacre, and will be charged with two counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder for opening fire on unarmed civilians. He has pleaded not guilty. Investigators said they lack sufficient evidence to try the other 15 cases.

The Bloody Sunday massacre occurred on January 30, 1972, as a crowd of unarmed protesters marched on the Bogside neighborhood of Londonderry, also known as Derry, in support of civil rights for Catholics. Among other grievances, marchers demonstrated against the disproportionate representation of Catholics in the Parliament of Northern Ireland, as well as housing discrimination and police brutality targeting Catholics.  

During the march, British paratroopers opened fire on the protesters, later falsely claiming that the protesters were armed. In total, 31 civilians were shot, including some who were in the process of running away. 13 protesters were immediately killed, and an additional 14th person later died of their wounds. 

While a 1972 investigation cleared the soldiers of responsibility, a subsequent investigation published in 2010 found that the soldiers had open fire “in either the knowledge or belief that no-one in the areas into which they fired was posing a threat,” prompting the British government to publicly apologize for the massacre. 

The massacre was a watershed moment during The Troubles, galvanizing support for the Provisional Irish Republican Army (known commonly as the IRA). The IRA would go on to target British soldiers, Northern Ireland police, and Unionists through a campaign of bombings, forced disappearances and assassinations in an armed campaign to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.  

In total, 3,600 people died between 1969 and 1998 as a direct result of violence perpetrated by the IRA, British military forces, Northern Ireland’s police and Unionist paramilitaries. 

For families of the victims, the trial of Soldier F represents what they say is long-awaited justice for the victims of the massacre. But other legacies from the conflict remain today, nearly 30 years after its end in the Good Friday Agreement. 

Segregated school systems, sectarian violence, and divided communities – most evident by the existence of dozens of “peace walls” which physically divide Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods – are all consequences resulting from decades of violence that followed Bloody Sunday. 

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Glossary 

• Assassination – killing a person for a political reason, usually by surprise.

• Civil rights – legal guarantees of equality and protections from discrimination. 

• Disproportionate – larger or smaller than it should be. 

• Forced disappearance – kidnapping and killing a person, then hiding its body so that it cannot be recovered by the person’s family or community. 

• Galvanize – suddenly causing a surge of support for or against a cause. 

• Grievances – a complaint calling out unfair treatment or unjust actions.

• Housing discrimination – refusing to rent or sell a house or apartment to a person based on their race, religion, or ethnicity. 

• Massacre – the large-scale killing of civilians or noncombatants.

• Murder – killing another person with premeditated intent to kill.

• Paramilitary – an armed group that acts like an army, but that is not part of a country’s military. 

• Paratrooper – an elite type of soldier, meant to be deployed via parachute into an armed conflict.

• Perpetrated – carried out by.

• Police brutality – excessive use of force used by members of the police or security forces. 

• Prompting – causing. 

• Republic of Ireland – known officially as just “Ireland,” a name used to differentiate the independent state of Ireland from Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. 

• Sectarian violence – violence perpetrated against another individual on the basis of them belonging to a certain political group, ethnicity, religion or race. 

• Segregated – divided by ethnicity, religion, or race. 

• Sufficient – enough. 

• Unionist – also known as a Loyalist, a person in Northern Ireland who wants the region to remain part of the United Kingdom. Usually (but not exclusively) Protestant. 

• Watershed moment – an event which serves as a turning point in history.