Fermanagh actor Adrian Dunbar read out the names of all the victims of Bloody Sunday during an event last Sunday, January 30, to mark the 50th anniversary of the atrocity, while there was also a minute’s silence for the victims held in the county.

A Bloody Sunday commemoration was also held in Derrylin, where pictures of the 14 victims along with banners and black flags were displayed.

As well as Mr. Dunbar, the ‘Beyond the Silence’ event, held at the Millennium Forum in Londonderry on Sunday, January 30, also saw contributions from Irish President Michael D. Higgins, and singer-songwriter Phil Coulter.

A choir sang ‘Danny Boy’, while images of the 1972 march and subsequent justice campaigns, as well as the Saville Inquiry ruling, were displayed in the background.

Families of those killed on Bloody Sunday held pictures of their loved ones at the front of the stage.

Mr. Dunbar said the “emotion is palpable” across the city. The Line Of Duty actor added: “Bloody Sunday was one of the darkest days since the foundation of Northern Ireland.

‘Callous and cruel’

“A hammer blow from a callous and cruel government, designed to squeeze the sense of freedom out of the people of Derry and choke the struggle for civil rights for all, regardless of political view or persuasion.

“Thirteen innocent men and boys from this great city lay dead on cold ground on the Bogside.

“The city was stunned into silence. Lies and propaganda spread throughout the world that the dead were not innocent at all. And that what the cameras showed, and what the people said was somehow a figment of their imagination, a trick of the light.

“The Bloody Sunday massacre was made worse by the travesty and the so-called rule of law.

“Lord Chief Justice Widgery, the highest judicial figure in England, confirmed the lies and closed the book, or so he thought. So they all thought.

“The cause of truth and justice for our innocent dead shone brightly in our hearts and minds of those left behind.

“The perpetrators and excuses of this gross act of state violence didn’t reckon on the Bloody Sunday families, who rose above the silence 20 years later to form the Bloody Sunday justice campaign – one of the most daring and successful human rights campaigns ever fought.”

He concluded by reading Seamus Heaney’s poem, ‘Road To Derry’.