{"id":464036,"date":"2026-05-01T23:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/464036\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T23:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:30:12","slug":"conservative-party-apologises-for-footage-of-bloody-sunday-trumpeting-british-army-service-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/464036\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservative Party apologises for footage of Bloody Sunday \u2018trumpeting\u2019 British army service \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK<\/a> Conservative Party<\/a> has apologised for a social-media<\/a> video which appeared to include footage of Bloody Sunday<\/a>, intended to highlight the service of British soldiers in Northern Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The video, criticising the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill, was posted to its leader Kemi Badenoch<\/a>\u2019s social-media channels on Tuesday and removed on Friday.<\/p>\n

It featured footage of Badenoch condemning the Bill and was overlaid, in part, with archive clips of British soldiers.<\/p>\n

Foyle MP Colum Eastwood described its use as \u201cdisgusting\u201d and \u201cdisgraceful\u201d.<\/p>\n

A Conservative spokesman said: \u201cAs soon as we were made aware of the footage the video was taken down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe apologise for the inclusion of this material, which should not have been used and will not be used again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirteen unarmed civilians were shot dead when members of the army\u2019s parachute regiment opened fire on civil rights demonstrators in the Bogside area of Derry<\/a> on January 30th, 1972, which became known as Bloody Sunday.<\/p>\n

The SDLP<\/a> MP said in a statement: \u201cI am shocked, frankly, that Kemi Badenoch has posted a video trumpeting the service of British soldiers in Northern Ireland using footage from Bloody Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is disgusting, disgraceful and it is an insult to the innocent civil rights protesters who were murdered in Derry in January 1972.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the video, Badenoch said Labour\u2019s Bill will \u201cdrag\u201d Troubles veterans back to court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will put elderly veterans through fresh legal battles at the end of their lives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Badenoch said her party will \u201cvote to block\u201d the legislation and \u201ca future Conservative government will repeal it\u201d and posted a link to a petition to stop the Bill.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Eight ex-soldiers investigated over Bloody Sunday evidence will not be prosecutedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Northern Ireland Troubles Bill was designed to repeal and replace the controversial Legacy Act introduced by the previous Conservative government, ending the immunity scheme brought in under the law, which was ruled unlawful in the courts.<\/p>\n

Eastwood said the video was \u201centirely about elevating the interests of British soldiers over the needs of victims and survivors who have been forced to fight against the power and might of the British state for decades seeking truth, justice and accountability for their loved ones\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2010, then Conservative prime minister David Cameron<\/a> apologised to the families of the civil rights marchers killed on Bloody Sunday after the Saville inquiry found all were innocent.<\/p>\n

Eastwood said: \u201cWe\u2019re a long way away from former prime minister David Cameron\u2019s powerful apology for the actions of soldiers on that day.\u201d \u2013 PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK Conservative Party has apologised for a social-media video which appeared to include footage of Bloody Sunday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[45955,9,10,18027,203795,955,13,14,6,18028,11,12,15,16,5,954,1114,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-464036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-bloody-sunday","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-conservative-and-unionist-party","tag-david-cameron","tag-derry","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-kemi-badenoch","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-social-media","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116501926688755247","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}