Derry City Council has allocated a budget of £17,000 for a new stained-glassed window in the Guildhall in memory of those killed on Bloody Sunday.

The Guildhall already has a Bloody Sunday memorial window.

However, the families of 14 people shot dead by British paratroopers during a civil rights demonstration in Derry in 1972 last year revealed that some of the names of the victims had been spelt wrong on the window.

The families raised a number of other concerns about the present window, including the use of poppies and ‘negative images’ in the window.

As a result, the window, which was put in place in 1986 and is located in the entrance hall of the Guildhall, is to be removed and replaced with a new Bloody Sunday memorial window.

The local council has issued a tender for the project which states that the maximum budget for the new window is £17,000.

Relatives of some of the Bloody Sunday victims addressed a council meeting last year about their concerns about the present window.

John Kelly, brother of Michael Kelly, who was killed on Bloody Sunday, said the families had been angered not only by the images, but the fact that so many of their loved ones’ names had been spelled incorrectly.

“It’s been pointed out to me that the window looks like something out the Rocky Horror Picture Show,” Mr Kelly told the meeting.

A spokesperson for Derry City Council said they had listened carefully to the views of the Bloody Sunday families.

“To this end Derry City Council have previously commissioned a re- design of the existing window,” the spokesperson said.

In its tender instructions to companies interested in designing and installing the new window, the council has given guidelines on what should be included in it.

“It is important that the event of Bloody Sunday is represented within the artwork via a scene or scenes which do not cause anguish to the families involved,” the tender document states.

The ‘injustice’ of the Widgery Inquiry in 1972, which exonerated the soldiers involved in the Bloody Sunday shootings, must also be ‘clearly conveyed’ in the new window.

The Bloody Sunday families’ campaign which eventually led to the Saville Inquiry report in 2010, which said the victims were innocent, must be incorporated into the window.

“The sense of victory for truth, justice vindication of the families' cause, as well as the liberating effect on the people of Derry, should be conveyed within the artwork,” the tender document says.

It concludes: “Generally, while the story of Bloody Sunday is steeped in loss, tragedy, denial and injustice, there is also a great sense of personal pride, victory and achievement among the families and others.  It is therefore important that the main impression conveyed by the art piece is an uplifting one i.e. a triumph of ordinary people over adversity and injustice.”

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