Families of victims of The Troubles in Northern Ireland say they will not be grieving the death of British General Mike Jackson.
The British Army announced on Tuesday, October 15 that Jackson had passed away earlier that day surrounded by his family. He was 80 years old.
"General ‘Jacko’ served with distinction for over 40 years, finishing his career as Chief of the General Staff," the British Army said.
"He will be greatly missed, and long remembered. Utrinque Paratus."
Jackson was a captain with the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment during the Ballymurphy Massacre of 1971 when ten people were killed, and he was second in command during Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972 when 13 people were killed and another died months later from his injuries.
Victims of both atrocities have since been cleared of wrongdoing.
Earlier this year, Ciarán Shiels of Madden & Finucane, the Belfast law firm that represents the majority of the families of the people murdered and the people wounded on Bloody Sunday, said: "Jackson was the chief architect and puppeteer in relation to the British Army’s cover up on Bloody Sunday."
Responding to the news of Jackson's death, Tony Doherty, Chairperson of the Bloody Sunday Trust, said on Wednesday: “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."
In a post on his personal feed, Doherty shared a photo of his father Paddy, who was killed on Bloody Sunday.
I'll post no photo of Mike Jackson the man responsible for Bloody Sunday and countless atrocities in Ireland, but here is one of my father Paddy, whom he murdered. A happy couple. You'd be wrong to think our family were destroyed. Our revenge has been the laughter of our children pic.twitter.com/nJxjHgkZca
— Tony Doherty (@tonydutchdoc) October 16, 2024
RTÉ News reports that the families of the Ballymurphy Massacre victims also said they would not mourn Jackson.
They said he had been the central figure within the British Army who had begun the narrative that those killed in west Belfast and in Derry were gunmen.
"He denied being involved in the Ballymurphy Massacre until our legal team presented the evidence in court that he was the 1 Para Captain who lied by giving interviews to the press that our loved ones were gun men.
"That lie stayed with the Ballymurphy Massacre victims for over 50 years until they were all declared entirely innocent by Justice Siobhan Keegan in May 2021.
"Jackson had the opportunity to accept his wrongdoing and apologise to families when he appeared at the inquest to give evidence but he didn't. Instead he deflected our loss, pain, and suffering onto himself citing the loss of his comrades.
"There will be no more lies, he will be judged on his actions and the deaths he and his soldiers caused in our community."
Elsewhere, the group Relatives for Justice said: "The British state will laud Michael Jackson today. They rely on lies, cover ups and impunity to protect their version of his memory.
"There are scores of families of dead and injured who will remember their loved ones, his victims, today.
"They have truth on their side."
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