Britain has held its hands up today to the killing of 14 civilians gunned down by soldiers from the Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday.
More than 38 years after the notorious events in Londonderry, when troops opened fire on unarmed civil rights marchers, the mammoth Saville Inquiry report delivered a devastating indictment.
It said none of the 14 people killed posed a threat and the actions of the soldiers were totally without justification.
Prime Minister David Cameron delivered a shocking analysis of the bloodshed inflicted by the troops and told the House of Commons: "On behalf of the Government, indeed on behalf of our country, I am deeply sorry."
Mr Cameron told the Commons that the inquiry said none of the casualties posed any threat to British troops. He said the inquiry found that the first shots were fired by British troops, no warnings were given, and some of the soldiers lost control.
The 14 civilians died after British troops opened fire on a civil rights march in Derry on January 30 1972.
Mr Cameron told MPs: "What happened on Bloody Sunday was both unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong. The Government is ultimately responsible for the conduct of the armed forces. And for that, on behalf of the Government, indeed on behalf of our country, I am deeply sorry."
The inquiry found that the soldiers of the support company who went into the Bogside, where the march was taking place, did so "as a result of an order which should not have been given" by their commander. It concluded that "on balance" the first shot in the vicinity of the march was fired by British soldiers.
In no case was any warning given by the soldiers before opening fire and the support company "reacted by losing their self-control ... forgetting or ignoring their instructions and training".
The result was a "serious and widespread loss of fire discipline". Afterwards, many of the soldiers involved "knowingly put forward false accounts in order to seek to justify their firing". The inquiry found that some of those who were killed or injured were clearly fleeing or going to the assistance of others who were dying.
