- For other incidents referred to by this name, see Bloody Sunday.
 Derry civil rights association banner after shootings On Sunday January 30, 1972, in an incident since known as Bloody Sunday, 13 people were shot by British soldiers after a civil rights march in the Bogside area of the city of Derry, Northern Ireland. The march was organized by Derry MP Ivan Cooper to protest the internment of Irishmen in Northern Ireland.
The perspectives and analyses on the day Thirteen people were shot dead, with another man later dying of his wounds. The official army position was that the Paratroopers had reacted to the threat of gunmen and nail-bombs from suspected IRA members. However, many witnesses (including marchers, local residents, and British and Irish journalists) challenge the army's account - their claims include that soldiers fired indiscriminately into the crowd, or were aiming at fleeing people and those tending the wounded. Some also claim that the soldiers were not fired upon. No British soldier was hit by any bullet, nor were any bullets recovered to back up this assertion. In the rage that followed, the British embassy in Merrion Square in Dublin was burned by an irate crowd. Anglo-Irish relations hit one of their lowest ebbs, with Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Patrick Hillery, going specially to the United Nations in New York to demand UN involvement in the Northern Ireland troubles.
In the immediate aftermath of Bloody Sunday, the British government under Prime Minister Edward Heath established a commission of inquiry under the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Widgery. His quickly-produced report supported the army's account of the events of the day. Scientific evidence presented to the inquiry implied that some of those shot had handled explosives. Many Nationalists and witnesses to the event disputed the report's conclusions.
The Saville Inquiry A second commission of inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville, was established in January 1998 to re-examine 'Bloody Sunday'. Hearings were concluded in November 2004, and the report is currently being written. The Saville Inquiry was a far more comprehensive study, interviewing a wide range of witnesses, including local residents, soldiers, journalists and politicians. Many believe that evidence so far has undermined the credibility of the original Widgery Tribunal report. Allegations were made that some bodies were placed next to guns and explosives, and other substances (including playing cards) have been found to cause false positives in tests for explosives. Some of the scientists responsible for the original reports to the Widgery Tribunal now dismiss their own findings, and the interpretation put on their findings. Lord Saville has declined to comment on the Widgery report, and has made the point that the Saville Inquiry is an inquiry into 'Bloody Sunday', not the Widgery Tribunal.
Evidence given by Martin McGuiness the deputy leader of Sinn Fein to the inquiry stated that he was in command of the Derry branch of the IRA and was present at the march. He also confirmed that he had been armed but could not answer questions about where he had been staying because it would compromise the safety of the individuals involved.
The impact of 'Bloody Sunday' on Northern Ireland divisions Whatever truly happened that day, all sides agree that 'Bloody Sunday' marked a major negative turning point in the fortunes of Northern Ireland. When it arrived in Northern Ireland, the British Army was welcomed by Nationalists and Catholics as their protector, there to protect them from the B_Specials, a paramilitary unit associated with the Royal Ulster Constabulary. After 'Bloody Sunday', many Nationalists and Catholics distrusted the army, seeing it no longer as their protector but as their enemy. Young Nationalists became increasingly attracted to splinter republican groups. With the Official IRA and Official Sinn Féin having moved away from mainstream Irish nationalism/republicanism towards Marxism, a new breakaway organisation. the Provisional IRA, appeared and gained the support of newly radicalised, disaffected young people.
In the following twenty years, the Provisional IRA and other smaller republican groups such as the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) mounted a campaign of what they described as 'war' on the 'British,' by which they meant the RUC, the British Army, the Ulster Defence Regiment of the British Army (and, according to some but not themselves, the Protestant and Unionist community). With rival paramilitary organisations appearing on both the nationalist/republican and unionist/loyalist communities (the Irish National Liberation Army, a republican rival to the Provos, the Ulster Defence Association, Ulster Freedom Fighters, etc on the loyalist side), a bitter and brutal war took place that cost the lives of thousands. Terrorist outrages involved such acts as the killing of a Catholic pop band, the Miami Showband, by loyalists (who took them out of their van after a concert and shot them) to the massacre by the Provos of World War veterans and their families attending a war wreath laying in Enniskillen and the blowing up of a young child at Warrington in Britain.
With the official cessation of violence by some of the major terrorist organisations, and the creation of the power-sharing executive at Stormont Parliament Buildings in Belfast under the Good Friday Agreement, the Saville Tribunal's re-examination of what remains one of the blackest days in Northern Ireland for the British Army offers a chance to heal the wounds left by the events of the notorious 'Bloody Sunday' in January 1972.
Artistic reaction This incident has been commemorated in the popular protest song by U2, "Catholic and Protestant in Northern Ireland to abandon sectarianism and "claim the victory Jesus won, on a Sunday, Bloody Sunday" (i.e. to fight to achieve a genuinely Christian society through Jesus Christ's victory over death in the resurrection on Easter Sunday). In the popular live recording, Bono clearly states (during the intro), "This is not a rebel song", although it is debatable exactly what he meant by "rebel" in this context, presumably he was indicating that the song was not intended to condone a violent response. This is emphasised by contempt for his "Republican" culture from which he grew up with the lyric: "It puts my back up, my back up against the wall", i.e. being forced to take up physical and mental arms against Protestants and British in Northern Ireland. It should be noted that Bono, a native Dubliner, was brought up as a Protestant though he later converted to Catholicism.
The events of the day have also been dramatized in the two 2002 films, Bloody Sunday (starring James Nesbitt) and Sunday by Jimmy McGovern, the creator of Cracker. Their portrayal of events is much closer to the opinion of the protestors than the official explanation of events offered by the British Army.
External links
The events of the day
Contemporary newspaper coverage - "13 killed as paratroops break riot" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/bloodysunday/article/0,2763,184928,00.html) from The Guardian, Monday January 31, 1972
- "Bogsiders insist that soldiers shot first" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/bloodysunday/article/0,2763,184927,00.html) from The Guardian, Tuesday February 1, 1972
Importance and impact
|
Feeds |
Contact