Bloody Sunday, International Human Rights Advocacy, and a Georgetown University Connection (Footnotes)

¹Martin Melaugh, comp., “‘Bloody Sunday,’ Derry 30 January 1972 – Names of the Dead and Injured,” CAIN Web Service, last accessed May 18, 2022, https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/bsunday/deadinj.htm. A fourteenth person died on June 16, 1972, after suffering from two shots on January 30, 1972.

²Museum of Free Derry, “Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign,” last accessed May 1, 2022, https://museumoffreederry.org/bloody-sunday-justice-campaign/. For commentary on the UK government’s approach to legacy cases, see Rory Carroll and Lisa O’Carroll, “Troubles-Era Investigations Will Give Amnesty Only to Those Who Cooperate,” Guardian, May 10, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/10/troubles-era-investigations-will-give-amnesty-only-to-those-who-cooperate; Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), “CAJ Outraged by UK Legacy Bill,” Press Release, May 17, 2022, https://caj.org.uk/2022/05/17/caj-outraged-by-uk-legacy-bill/.

³My research builds on scholarly work that situates the Troubles within major global political developments of the twentieth century, including decolonization and the rise of human rights politics. This approach challenges the argument of the British government that the conflict was an internal affair. See, for example, Melissa Baird, “Situating Irish America in the Northern Irish Civil Rights Movement,” Writing the ‘Troubles’ (blog), March 8, 2021, https://writingthetroublesweb.wordpress.com/2021/03/08/irish-america-and-irish-civil-rights/; Brian Drohan, Brutality in an Age of Human Rights: Activism and Counterinsurgency at the End of the British Empire (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018); and Simon Prince, “Decolonization and the Start of the ‘Troubles,’” Writing the ‘Troubles’ (blog), August 10, 2020, https://writingthetroublesweb.wordpress.com/2020/08/10/decolonization/.

⁴Graham Dawson, Making Peace with the Past? Memory, Trauma and the Irish Troubles (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2007), 103; “S.D.L.P. and Nationalists Will Boycott Inquiry,” Derry Journal, February 4, 1972, 16, Writings File, Box 246, Folder 6, Samuel Dash Papers, Library of Congress.

⁵In 1976, the organization changed its name from the International League for the Rights of Man to the International League for Human Rights.

⁶Justice Denied: A Challenge to Lord Widgery’s Report on “Bloody Sunday,” report, Writings File, Box 249, Folder 19, Dash Papers; J. Y. Smith, “Probe on ‘Bloody Sunday,’” Washington Post, April 25, 1972, International League for the Rights of Man, 1971-1972, TS Years of Expansion, 1950-1990: Series 3, Subject Files, International Civil Liberties, 1942-1982, Box 1164, Folder 10, Item 412. Mudd Library, Princeton University. The Making of Modern Law: American Civil Liberties Union Papers. See also Christopher Svare to Mary McCarthy, April 3, 1972, Writings File, Box 247, Folder 1, Dash Papers.

⁷Report of the Tribunal Appointed to Inquire into the Events on Sunday, 30th January 1972 (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, April 1972), CAIN Web Service, compiled by Fionnuala McKenna, last accessed May 18, 2022, https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/hmso/widgery.htm.

⁸Justice Denied, report, Writings File, Box 249, Folder 19, Dash Papers.

⁹“Northern Ireland: Unofficial Report on Londonderry,” British Information Services Policy and Reference Division, Policy Statements, June 8, 1972, Writings File, Box 247, Folder 2, Dash Papers. On December 16, 1971, the Irish government filed a complaint alleging that the British security forces tortured paramilitary suspects during internment without trial, which started on August 9, 1971. The internment policy motivated the civil rights protest on January 30, 1972. The Court ruled in 1978 that the army’s use of interrogation techniques “undoubtedly amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment” under the European Convention on Human Rights but did not rise to the threshold of torture. (Ireland v. The United Kingdom (1978), sec. 47 and 167, https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-57506. See also Prof. Shane Darcy’s remarks at Moore Institute, “Bloody Sunday: 50 Years from a Defining Moment,” streamed live on January 26, 2022, video, 1:35:20, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKYK5OzaqY4; and Daria Sartori, “The Dismissal of the Revision Request in the Case of Ireland v UK,” International Law Blog, April 16, 2018, https://internationallaw.blog/2018/04/16/the-dismissal-of-the-revision-request-in-the-case-of-ireland-v-uk/.)

¹⁰Robert F. Drinan to Samuel Dash, August 21, 1972, Writings File, Box 247, Folder 4, Dash Papers. In addition to his work at Georgetown, Drinan sat on the board of directors of the International League for Human Rights and traveled on human rights missions around the world. (Georgetown Law, “Father Robert F. Drinan, S.J.,” last accessed April 15, 2022, https://www.law.georgetown.edu/human-rights-institute/human-rights-on-campus/robert-f-drinan-chair-in-human-rights/father-robert-f-drinan-s-j/.)

¹¹Samuel Dash to Robert F. Drinan, August 24, 1972, Writings File, Box 247, Folder 4, Dash Papers.

¹²See the statement transcript attached to the following letter: Desmond J Doherty to Samuel Dash, July 24, 2000, Organizations File, Box 163, Folder 5, Dash Papers. See also Brendan Lynn and Martin Melaugh, comp., ‘Bloody Sunday,’ Derry 30 January 1972 – Guide to the Hearings of The Bloody Sunday Inquiry (1998-2005), CAIN Web Service, last accessed May 18, 2022, https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/bsunday/inquiryhearings.htm#Apr00.

¹³Dawson, Making Peace with the Past, 153-155; Tony Doherty, interview, Bill Rolston and Mairead Gilmartin, Unfinished Business: State Killings and the Quest for Truth (Belfast, Northern Ireland: Beyond the Pale, 2000), 17.