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January 30th, 1972 remains among the most fatal – and significant – days during three decades of conflict in Northern Ireland.

In the streets where it happened – the memories of that fateful day are visible on the structures and seared in collective memory.

A civil rights march was organized on a cold but bright period in Londonderry.

The protest was a protest against the policy of internment – imprisoning people without trial – which had been put in place in response to multiple years of unrest.

Soldiers from the Parachute Regiment shot dead 13 people in the Bogside area – which was, and still is, a overwhelmingly Irish nationalist area.

A specific visual became notably iconic.

Images showed a Catholic priest, Father Daly, using a bloodied cloth while attempting to defend a group carrying a youth, the injured teenager, who had been fatally wounded.

News camera operators captured considerable film on the day.

The archive contains Fr Daly telling a journalist that soldiers "just seemed to shoot indiscriminately" and he was "totally convinced" that there was no reason for the gunfire.

That version of the incident wasn't accepted by the original examination.

The Widgery Tribunal concluded the Army had been attacked first.

During the peace process, the ruling party established a fresh examination, in response to advocacy by surviving kin, who said Widgery had been a whitewash.

That year, the report by the investigation said that generally, the paratroopers had discharged weapons initially and that none of the individuals had presented danger.

The contemporary government leader, the leader, expressed regret in the government chamber – declaring killings were "unjustified and unacceptable."

Authorities started to investigate the matter.

One former paratrooper, identified as Soldier F, was brought to trial for killing.

He was charged concerning the killings of one victim, 22, and twenty-six-year-old another victim.

The accused was also accused of seeking to harm multiple individuals, other civilians, more people, another person, and an unidentified individual.

There is a legal order protecting the soldier's identity protection, which his attorneys have argued is necessary because he is at risk of attack.

He told the examination that he had only fired at people who were carrying weapons.

That claim was rejected in the final report.

Information from the examination was unable to be used directly as proof in the legal proceedings.

During the trial, the veteran was screened from view with a blue curtain.

He spoke for the first time in the hearing at a hearing in late 2024, to respond "not responsible" when the charges were read.

Relatives of those who were killed on Bloody Sunday made the trip from the city to Belfast Crown Court each day of the trial.

A family member, whose sibling was killed, said they were aware that attending the trial would be painful.

"I can see the events in my mind's eye," John said, as we visited the main locations referenced in the trial – from the street, where the victim was fatally wounded, to the adjoining the courtyard, where the individual and William McKinney were died.

"It reminds me to my position that day.

"I participated in moving the victim and put him in the ambulance.

"I relived the entire event during the proceedings.

"Despite enduring all that – it's still valuable for me."