Michael D Higgins: Honour Bloody Sunday victims by sustaining 'inclusive peace'

Today, the city “stands as a beacon of hope and justice”, Mr Higgins is expected to say in his address.

“Fifty years ago today, in one of the shaping events of our modern shared history, thousands of men and women set out from the Creggan to march for civil rights.

“Fourteen people ultimately lost their lives, and many more were injured, as a result of what unfolded on the streets of Derry that day.

Just as the families of those lost that day have done throughout their long years of campaigning, we remember, too, all of the families who lost loved ones to violence during the Troubles.

Mr Higgins will say: “In marking the events of Bloody Sunday, we are given a unique opportunity to recognise and respond to some of the most painful facts in our history, atrocities inflicted on communities, including state violence.

“Such a process of ethical remembering is the very antithesis of any other forms of remembering which would seek to facilitate or encourage any kind of conscious or unconscious amnesia as to persons or events.” 

January 30, 1972 will live on in our collective memory, Mr Higgins will say.

“We honour the morality of that memory today. We honour the men who died. And we continue to honour them into the future by our continued commitment to the rights that were won at such great cost.

We do so best by protecting these rights won, and sustaining the principled and inclusive peace that we have built together.

Mr Higgins is also expected to pay tribute to those “who have made, and continue to make it possible, for us to stand in this ceremony of memory and solidarity with you today”.

“The families and neighbours of those who lost their lives in Derry all those years ago, those who, in a relentless pursuit of truth, stood in solidarity with you during your long campaign to vindicate the memories of your loved ones.

“Your campaign required overturning those forces who sought to avoid the necessary truth of what took place, and evade accountability. Forces that stood between you and your efforts to overturn, for example, the historic, grievous wrong of the Widgery Tribunal.”