Doing your duty
The battle-scarred city walls look on as we march in memory of those killed
by the soldiers who wore the iconic red beret.
But now, the heroes of Arnhem and Pegasus Bridge,
forerunners of these modern-day paratroopers, are stirring in their graves,
at the claim that the killers in British uniforms were only ‘Doing their duty.’
They rise up and march in unison with the souls of
Jack Duddy and Barney McGuigan, to say, ‘Not in my name.’
Of course, former officers hint that some were not completely innocent,
while saying, ‘We never trained those young men to kill unarmed civilians.’
But the restless ghosts reply, ‘Tell that to the relatives of the slain’.
Yet the old soldiers still march, affirming their ‘right to protest’,
their feet marching in time to the Orangemen’s long beg drum,
forgetting that it was the men of that other war and their like,
who gave those killed in Derry on Bloody Sunday, that very right.
But as the BBC Radio pundits argue, we all have our own version of truth,
but some truths seem more convincing if you talk posh, with a plum in your mouth.
Kevin Vose
Tue 25th Jan 2022 11:00
The actual facts are that the support company of 1 Para fired 108 live rounds into an area full of civilians,
and did so in the knowledge that they were not being shot at or having bombs thrown at them. Their actions were not in response to the few gunmen who were in the area.
They shot at unnarmed civilians, some going to help wounded shot by fellow paratroopers, and told lies. None of the killed were wanted by the security forces, apart from two lads charged with affray in a riot. The Mod admitted that at the Widgery enquiry. para 1's behaviour was generally untypical of the main army in northern Ireland. I fail to see what the Omagh atrocity has to do with it, my aunt lived near there, as for Afghanistan, to mention that is just is comparing 'professional soldiers with ones who were anything but and provided the biggest recruiting agent for 'old PIRA'. To link the paratroopers who behaved so badly on that day with world War Two veterans is an insult to them.