by Marcella Ortega
Daily Lobo
Thirty-five years after Bloody Sunday, the Irish Freedom Committee is still looking for justice.
"We have this impression that England is this jolly kind of chubby guy who smokes a pipe and pats little kids on the head," member Chuck McLaughlin said. "But we could sit down with a map of the world right now and point out constant areas of trouble in the world - India, Pakistan, Israel, Palestine and Ireland - and these are all a direct result of British colonization and the British being in areas they shouldn't have been. When the British left this country after our own war for independence, they didn't leave George Washington enough money to buy a mule."
The Albuquerque chapter of the Irish Freedom Committee, a human rights organization, will host three screenings of the film "Bloody Sunday" today at the Guild Cinema.
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On Jan. 30, 1972, known to the Irish as Bloody Sunday, the British Army's 1st Parachute Regiment killed 13 unarmed civilian demonstrators in Derry, Ireland. The march, which was declared illegal, according to British authorities, was called to protest internment. The film is about the events that took place on that day.
"I've had the good fortune to meet several people who were there that day," McLaughlin said. "The whole civil rights movement that took place, and that is still taking place, in Ireland was modeled off the prototype that Dr. King developed here, and it was supposed to be nonviolent and peaceful, but you see what happens."
Member Donal J. Murphy II, who was at the Kent State massacre during the Vietnam War, said the situation was terribly familiar.
"One man said to me, 'It seems like that was Ireland's Kent State,'" he said. "And I was like, 'Oh my God.'"
Proceeds from the screening will go to the families of Irish Republican prisoners of war.
"The war is still very much
going on," McLaughlin said. "There are more than a hundred political prisoners now being held in English and Irish free-state prisons.And often, when a young man in his 20s or 30s goes to jail, he may be the breadwinner for not just his own family but maybe his parents or his mother-in-law and father-in-law."
McLaughlin said the film was approved by the demonstration's leader and Irish politician Ivan Cooper, played by James Nesbitt in the film.
"It was shot with a handheld video camera," McLaughlin said. "You really get the impression that you are running with the crowd as they are running away from live ammunition being fired at them."
Member Linda Patterson, who is from Ireland, said she participates because of how unfairly the Irish are treated.
"It's just such an injustice," she said. "That is why I am involved. People are just repressed."
She said she's also concerned because the situation is ongoing.
"This isn't something that is current," she said. "It's been going on forever. But the fact that 26 of the counties in Ireland are self-governing, and six of the counties are ruled by England, is pretty tough to take."
McLaughlin said the committee will continue its fundraisers for as long as it takes.
"Having been there a number of times and having seen the oppression that exists when you cross the border - this is Ireland," he said. "It's not part of the United Kingdom. I don't care what the
map says."
"Bloody Sunday"
Guild Cinema
3405 Central Ave. N.E
Tonight
4:30 p.m.
6:45 p.m., followed by a short Q&A session
9:15 p.m.
$7
