Bloody Sunday 1972: Wreath laid for Catholic and Protestant RUC officers murdered three days before Bloody Sunday
A wreath has been laid in Londonderry for a Catholic and Protestant RUC officer who were the first police in the city to be murdered during the Troubles - only three days before Bloody Sunday.
On 27 January 1972, Sergeant Gilgunn, a 26-year old Roman Catholic, and Constable Montgomery, a 20-year-old Protestant, were murdered in an IRA ambush on Creggan Hill.
Sgt was married and left behind an eight month old son. He was from Belcoo in Fermanagh but was buried in his wife's hometown of Kilkeel.
David Montgomery was Protestant 20, single and from the Cregagh area of east Belfast.
They were the first policemen to be killed in the Londerry during the Troubles.
Their car was hit 17 times by three gunmen, one of them armed with a Thompson sub-machine gun. A Coldstream Guards soldier stationed at the nearby Rosemount RUC station opened fire on one of the gunmen.
According to Troubles reference work Lost lives, a chief superintendent said the RUC inquiry team found local residents cooperative in the investigation.
"There have been no hostilities to our men in the area," he said.
Three days later - and only one mile away - soldiers from the Parachute Regiment shot 13 people dead and injured at least 15 others when they opened fire on a civil rights parade in the Bogside area of the city.
DUP representatives Gregory Campbell MP and Gary Middleton MLA laid a wreath in the honour of the two police officers on Monday at Londonderry cenotaph.
Gregory Campbell MP said: “Today, we remember two brave young men who were cruelly taken in the line of duty. Whilst much focus is placed on events known as 'Bloody Sunday' three days later in the same area of Londonderry, few remember that a Thompson Sub-machine gun was used on both days. Whilst it is the anniversary of these two murders it is also for ALL the innocents, whom we must always remember.
"There are some who seek to rewrite history, but these murders stand as a stark reminder of the brutal reality of the Troubles and the dangers faced by members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary who served and sought to uphold law and order for all. They must not be forgotten”