Madden & Finucance represent the families of Jackie Duddy, Michael Kelly, Hugh Gilmour, Michael McDaid, John Young, Kevin McElhinney, Willie McKinney, Gerard McKinney, Gerald Donaghey and Patrick Doherty who were shot dead on Bloody Sunday. We also represent some members of the family of Barney McGuigan, who was also shot dead.

We also represent Damien Donaghey, Alana Burke, Patrick McDaid, Joe Friel, Joe Mahon and Michael Quinn who were wounded on Bloody Sunday, and we also represent the families of John Johnston, Margaret Deery, Patrick O’Donnell, Patrick Campbell, Daniel McGowan and Pius McCarron who were shot and injured on that day, but who have since died.

Peter Madden, of Madden & Finucane Solicitors said as follows:

“In 1974 ex gratia payments of compensation were made to the victims of Bloody Sunday. The amounts paid were based on the flawed conclusions of Lord Widgery and were derisory and wholly inappropriate in amount. The victims will not, therefore, be compensated “twice” as has been claimed by some commentators.

There is nothing unusual about the payment of proper compensation in a case like this. Indeed, recently the British Government paid compensation to the family of Baha Mousa and nine other Iraqi men who were subjected to horrific assaults by soldiers from the 1 Queens Lancashire Regiment in Basra in 2003. These assaults resulted in the death of Baha Mousa, a 26 year old father of two young children. This payment followed the conclusions of the report by Sir William Gage which found that the treatment of the men was unjustified.

Following careful consideration of the Saville Report, and the unqualified declaration of innocence of each of the Bloody Sunday dead and injured, we wrote to the Prime Minister, David Cameron on 24 January 2011, enquiring as to the British Government’s proposals to properly compensate the families of the victims who were murdered on Bloody Sunday, the wounding of others, and for the shameful allegations which besmirched their good names for many years.

The Ministry of Defence have now written to us indicating that they wish to settle all issues concerning compensation in the near future, and we shall be considering this correspondence closely with those that we represent, and discussions will shortly commence with Ministry of Defence representatives in order to resolve the issue.”