Saint Patrick's Day - Up the Irish!

30 January 1972 is known now and forever in Derry as Bloody Sunday, the day when 13 innocent Irish people were killed while participating in a civil rights march. They were killed by British soldiers. Or maybe just one (1) British soldier, according to the UK Public Prosecution Service. For that's the total number charged with murder. ONE.

The charge against the murderer, known only as "Soldier F", was laid just this week, more than 47 years after the fact. The former paratrooper was not named because all military witnesses were granted anonymity by the Saville Inquiry into the circumstances around the killings. The PPS said there was enough evidence to prosecute Soldier F for the murders of James Wray and William McKinney... only those two, out of 13 dead. He also faces charges for the attempted murders of Patrick O'Donnell, Joseph Friel, Joe Mahon and Michael Quinn. There was "insufficient evidence", PPS said, to prosecute 16 other soldiers. Hardly surprising, after nearly half a century.

The sole prosecution is seen as a terrible disappointment by some of the families of the 13 people killed. James Wray's brother Liam told the BBC he was "very saddened for the other families" of those killed on Bloody Sunday. "Their hearts must be broken," he said. "It has been a sad day but the Wray family are relieved." But, he added, "There are a lot of sad and heartbroken people today."

To all the Irish -- including those who identify as Irish, those who feel like they're Irish, and those who wish they were Irish [and who doesn't?! Ed.] -- wherever they are -- in Derry, Sligo, Coleraine, Tullamore, Adjala Township and/or south Boston -- HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY TO YEZ, and don't rest until Ireland is united for the Irish!

Recommended reading: na Gopaleen, Myles (pseudonym of Flann O'Brien): The Best of Myles, Picador 1977. In particular, Walt likes the chapters titled "The Brother" (how could yez not laugh?) and "The Plain People of Ireland".

Some will say that the Eire of today is not the Ireland of Mr O'Brien's time. Many denizens of the auld sod won't be able to read the parts written in Irish Gaelic. [Faith now, I can't read it meself! Ed.] But the Irish are still the Irish, even if they live in a part of Ireland separated from the rest by the foreign (read: English) oppressors. God bless all of them, and haste the day that the Six Counties will be reunited with the rest of the country.