Ex-MP bore ‘responsibility of leading people to Derry streets’ on Bloody Sunday
By Rebecca Black, PA
Former Stormont MP Ivan Cooper felt he had to “live with the responsibility” of having led the people of Derry on to the streets on Bloody Sunday, Belfast Crown Court has heard.
Mr Cooper, one of the founders of the SDLP, made a statement to the criminal investigation into the shootings in 2015 before he died in 2019, which was read during the trial of a former paratrooper accused of two murders.
Some 13 people were killed after soldiers opened fire on civilians following a civil rights march in Derry on January 30th 1972.
The veteran, known as Soldier F, is accused of two murders and five attempted murders.
He has pleaded not guilty to the seven counts in a trial which started on Monday.
Mr Cooper was an independent MP in the Northern Ireland Parliament in 1972, and had organised the civil rights and anti-internment march which preceded the shootings.
In the statement, which was read to the trial, Mr Cooper recalled going for a walk around the city that morning and seeing members of the Parachute Regiment carrying rifles close to St Eugene’s Cathedral, where people were attending Mass.
He said while he believed this was an attempt to discourage people from attending the march, it had “the opposite effect”.
Mr Cooper recalled a “carnival atmosphere” at Bishop’s Field in Creggan at the start of the march.
He described being asked for autographs, and said he was “treated like a celebrity” because people felt it was important that he, a Protestant, was backing the civil rights campaign.
As the march continued, Mr Cooper said while the mood was still good, some observations began to concern him, such as feeling there were not enough stewards and the mood of the soldiers, with a “top brass” officer banging his baton in hand, and “hyping up the men”.
When disorder broke out, Mr Cooper observed that it was not anything worse than recent incidents.
In his statement, Mr Cooper recalled standing on a platform at Free Derry Corner addressing those gathered, alongside Bernadette Devlin, and being aware of rioting continuing, and rubber bullets and CS Gas being deployed, before realising there was also live fire and seeing people scatter.
He referred to hearing a “number of distinctive cracks” and “lead buzzing around me”.
Mr Cooper described crawling towards a phone box, and hearing the sound of women screaming and crying while shooting continued.
He noted then that the army was “clearly not interested in talking to anyone”.
Mr Cooper witnessed bodies of men lying on the ground and recalled not knowing if they were dead or injured, before meeting up with John Hume.
The pair drove together to Altnagelvin Hospital to support the families of those killed and those injured.
He told investigators that while he did not feel like he was blamed for the killings, he “had to live with the responsibility of bringing the people of Derry on the streets that day”.
