February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The event commemorates the 13 Derry civil rights demonstrators who died after being gunned down by the British Army on Bloody Sunday, Jan. 30, 1972.
A fourteenth person wounded in the shootings died weeks later.
The march steps off promptly at 12:30 p.m. from 58th St. and 4th Avenue in Sunset Park, and will proceed to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica for a 1 p.m. mass.
The homilist will be Father Colm Campbell, a native of Derry. The mass will be celebrated by Father Sean McGillicuddy, the pastor.
A reception will be held afterwards at the Irish Haven, 5721 4th Avenue.
Participants are being asked to remember all those lost in the troubles, to pray for a lasting peace in Northern Ireland and to call for justice for the Bloody Sunday victims and the families that survive them.
The deaths 34 years ago occurred when soldiers in the British Army’s Parachute Regiment opened fire on a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march.
A British inquiry into the shootings exonerated the regiment and this led to years of protest and calls for a new inquiry.
One was convened after being ordered by British prime minister Tony Blair in 1998. It is now entering its final phase.
The Brooklyn commemoration is organized by the Bay Ridge Irish American Action Association and has been held each year since 1972.
For details contact Martin Brennan at (718)836-4178, brennanmartinf@hotmail.com or Mary Nolan at (718)833-3405.