Adjutant of Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday Mike Jackson dies

The former head of the British Army General Mike Jackson has died at the 80, it has been confirmed.

Jackson was the adjutant of the Parachute Regiment’s 1st battalion, he was present on Bloody Sunday on January 30, 1972 in Derry when paratroopers shot dead 13 people during a civil rights march.

He stated that he did not attempt any cover-up of the killing of the civilians.

In 2003, he gave evidence to the Saville inquiry regarding how he wrote up a note, in the aftermath of the shootings, regarding what soldiers said about why they had fired.

Jackson made an apology for the shootings in 2011 and acknowledged the men had been killed “without justification” after the publication of the Saville inquiry’s report, which called the incident a ‘‘catastrophe’’ for Northern Ireland.

The father-of-three led the British Army during the allied invasion of Iraq in 2003 after serving in Northern Ireland and Bosnia.

A highly controversial figure, his death last night was met with fireworks being set off in the Bogside area of Derry.

Last year a mural in the Bogside depicting Jackson was erected, labelling the former army officer a 'war criminal'. The mural was subsequently removed after objections were raised by residents and some Bloody Sunday families.

Tony Doherty, Chairperson of the Bloody Sunday Trust, said: "On behalf of the Bloody Sunday families and many other families who’ve had loved ones murdered by the British army; there will be no grieving the loss of this man. He knowingly ordered the
execution of many innocent people and should have been in the international dock for war crimes.

"The British may celebrate his life and so-called achievements as they gaze across the seas at their former empire, now gone. In the same way, the apartheid state of Israel celebrates the lives of their fallen generals as the slaughter innocent people continues day after day. The day of reckoning for others will come too.

"As he wreaked havoc in Derry and elsewhere in the 1970s, taking innocent life after innocent life, he thought they had quenched the spirit of freedom. Half a century on, they are barely capable of holding onto their last vestige of empire. For the many families that he tried to destroy, vengeance has become the laughter of our children and grandchildren.

"Mike Jackson’s name will sit well in the annals of imperial injustice alongside Widgery, Thatcher and Churchill. There will be no mourning here. We look forward to tearing down his statue."

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