:''For other incidents referred to by this name, see
Bloody Sunday.''
The Bogside area viewed from the city walls
'Bloody Sunday' (
Irish: ''Domhnach na Fola'') is the term used to describe an incident in
Derry[1],
Northern Ireland, on
30 January 1972 in which 26 civil rights protesters were shot by members of the 1st Battalion of the British
Parachute Regiment led by Lieutenant-Colonel Derek Wilford and his second-in-command Captain (later General)
Mike Jackson, who had joint responsibility for the operation, during a
Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in the
Bogside area of the city. Thirteen people, six of whom were minors, died immediately, while the death of another person 4½ months later has been attributed to the injuries he received on the day. Two protesters were injured when run down by army vehicles.
[2] Many witnesses including bystanders and journalists testify that all those shot were unarmed. Five of those wounded were shot in the back.
Two investigations have been held by the
British Government:
★ The
Widgery Tribunal, held in the immediate aftermath of the event, largely cleared the soldiers and British authorities of blame, but was criticised as a "
whitewash".
[3][4][5]
★ The
Saville Inquiry, established in 1998 to look at the events again (chaired by
Lord Saville of Newdigate), has yet to report
as of August 2007.
The
Provisional Irish Republican Army's (IRA) campaign against Northern Ireland being
a part of the United Kingdom had begun in the two years prior to Bloody Sunday, but perceptions of the day boosted the status of and recruitment into the organisation.
[6] Bloody Sunday remains among the most significant events in the recent
troubles of Northern Ireland, arguably because it was carried out by the army and not
paramilitaries, and in full public and press view.
[7]
Events of the day
Westland Road in the
Bogside viewed from the city wall (July 31, 2007).
Many details of the day's events are in dispute, with no agreement even on the number of marchers present that day. The organisers, "Insight", claimed that there were 30,000 marchers;
Lord Widgery, in his tribunal, said that there were only 3,000 to 5,000. In ''The Road To Bloody Sunday'', local
GP Dr. Raymond McClean estimated the crowd as 15,000, which is the figure used by
Bernadette Devlin McAliskey in
Parliament.
A wealth of material has been produced relating to the day, including numerous books and articles, as well as documentary films made on the subject.
[8]
The march's planned route had taken it to the Guildhall, but because of army barricades it was redirected to
Free Derry Corner. A small group of teenagers broke off from the main march and persisted in pushing the barricade and marching on the Guildhall. They attacked the
British army barricade with stones and shouted insults at the troops. At this point, a water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets were used to disperse the rioters. Such confrontations between soldiers and youths were common, though observers reported that the rioting was not intense.
[9] Two people were shot and wounded by soldiers on William Street.
At a certain point, reports of an IRA sniper operating in the area were allegedly given to the Army command centre. The order to fire live rounds was given, and one young man was shot and killed when he ran down Chamberlain Street away from the advancing troops. This first fatality, Jackie Duddy, was among a crowd who were running away. He was running alongside a priest,
Father Edward Daly, when he was shot in the back. Continuing violence by and against British troops escalated, and eventually the order was given to mobilise the troops in an arrest operation, chasing the tail of the main group of marchers to the edge of the field by Free Derry Corner.
Despite a cease-fire order from the army HQ, over a hundred rounds were fired directly into the fleeing crowds by troops under the command of Major Ted Loden. Twelve more were killed
[1], many of them as they attempted to aid the fallen. Fourteen others were wounded, twelve by shots from the soldiers and two knocked down by
armoured personnel carriers.
The dead
★ John (Jackie) Duddy (17). Shot in the chest in the car park of Rossville flats. Four witnesses stated Duddy was unarmed and running away from the paratroopers when he was killed. Three of them saw a soldier take deliberate aim at the youth as he ran. Uncle of Irish boxer
John Duddy.
[10]
★ Patrick Joseph Doherty (31). Shot from behind while attempting to crawl to safety in the forecourt of Rossville flats. Doherty was the subject of a series of photographs, taken before and after he died by
French journalist
Gilles Peress. Despite testimony from "Soldier F" that he had fired at a man holding and firing a pistol, Widgery acknowledged that the photographs showed Doherty was unarmed, and that forensic tests on his hands for gunshot residue proved negative.
★ Bernard McGuigan (41). Shot in the back of the head when he went to help Patrick Doherty. He had been waving a white handkerchief at the soldiers to indicate his peaceful intentions.
[12]
★ Hugh Pious Gilmour (17). Shot in the chest as he ran from the paratroopers on Rossville Street.
Widgery acknowledged that a photograph taken seconds after Gilmour was hit corroborated witness reports that he was unarmed, and that tests for gunshot residue were negative.
★ Kevin McElhinney (17). Shot from behind while attempting to crawl to safety at the front entrance of the Rossville Flats. Two witnesses stated McElhinney was unarmed.
★ Michael G. Kelly (17). Shot in the stomach while standing near the rubble barricade in front of Rossville Flats. Widgery accepted that Kelly was unarmed.
★ John Pius Young (17). Shot in the head while standing at the rubble barricade. Two witnesses stated Young was unarmed.
★ William Noel Nash (19). Shot in the chest near the barricade. Witnesses stated Nash was unarmed and going to the aid of another when killed.
★ Michael M. McDaid (20). Shot in the face at the barricade as he was walking away from the paratroopers. The trajectory of the bullet indicated he could have been killed by soldiers positioned on the Derry Walls.
★ James Joseph Wray (22). Wounded then shot again at close range while lying on the ground. Witnesses who were not called to the Widgery Tribunal stated that Wray was calling out to say that he could not move his legs before he was shot the second time.
★
Gerald Donaghy (17). Shot in the stomach while attempting to run to safety between Glenfada Park and Abbey Park. Donaghy was brought to a nearby house by bystanders where he was examined by a doctor. His pockets were turned out in an effort to identify him. A later
police photograph of Donaghy's corpse showed
nail bombs in his pockets. Neither those who searched his pockets in the house nor the British army medical officer (Soldier 138) who pronounced his death shortly afterwards say they saw any bombs. Donaghy had been a member of
Fianna Éireann, an IRA-linked Republican youth movement.
Paddy Ward, who gave evidence at the
Saville Inquiry, claimed that he had given two nail bombs to Donaghy several hours before he was shot dead.
[13]
★ Gerald (James) McKinney (34). Shot just after Gerald Donaghy. Witnesses stated that McKinney had been running behind Donaghy, and he stopped and held up his arms, shouting "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!", when he saw Donaghy fall. He was then shot in the chest.
★ William A. McKinney (27). Shot from behind as he attempted to aid Gerald McKinney (no relation). He had left cover to try to help the older man.
★ John Johnson (59). Shot on William Street 15 minutes before the rest of the shooting started. Johnson died of his wounds 4½ months later, the only one not to die immediately or soon after being shot.
The perspectives and analyses on the day
Thirteen people were shot and killed, with another man later dying of his wounds. The official army position, backed by the British
Home Secretary the next day in the
House of Commons, was that the
Paratroopers had reacted to the threat of gunmen and nail-bombs from suspected IRA members. However, all eye-witnesses (apart from the soldiers), including marchers, local residents, and British and Irish journalists present, maintain that soldiers fired into an unarmed crowd, or were aiming at fleeing people and those tending the wounded, whereas the soldiers themselves were not fired upon. No British soldier was wounded by gunfire or reported any injuries, nor were any bullets or nail-bombs recovered to back up their claims. In the events that followed, irate crowds burned down the British embassy in
Dublin. 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".
Although there were many IRA men — both
Official and
Provisional — present at the protest, it is claimed they were all unarmed, apparently because it was anticipated that the Paratroopers would attempt to "draw them out".
[14] MP
Ivan Cooper had been promised beforehand that no armed IRA men would be near the march. Many of the Paratroopers who gave evidence at the Tribunal testified that they were told by their officers to expect a gunfight and had been encouraged to "get some kills". In the event, one man was witnessed by
Father Edward Daly and others haphazardly firing a revolver in the direction of the paratroopers. Later identified as a member of the Official IRA, this man was also photographed in the act of drawing his weapon, but was apparently not seen or targeted by the soldiers. Various other claims have been made to the Saville Inquiry about gunmen on the day.
[15]
The city's
coroner, retired British army Major
Hubert O'Neill, issued a statement on
August 21,
1973, at the completion of the
inquest into the people killed.
[16] He declared:
Two days after Bloody Sunday, Parliament adopted a resolution for a
tribunal into the events of the day, resulting in
Prime Minister Edward Heath commissioning the
Lord Chief Justice,
Lord Widgery to undertake it. Many witnesses intended to
boycott the tribunal as they lacked faith in Widgery's impartiality, but were eventually persuaded to take part. Widgery's quickly-produced report — completed within ten weeks (
April 10) and published within eleven (
April 19) — supported the Army's account of the events of the day. Among the evidence presented to the tribunal were the results of paraffin tests, used to identify lead residues from firing weapons, and that nail bombs had been found on the body of one of those killed. Tests for traces of explosives on the clothes of eleven of the dead proved negative, while those of the remaining man could not be tested as they had already been washed. Most Irish people and witnesses to the event disputed the report's conclusions and regarded it as a whitewash. It is now widely accepted that the nail bombs photographed on Gerard Donaghy were planted there after his death, and firearms residue on some deceased came from contact with the soldiers who themselves moved some of the bodies, or that the presence of lead on the hands of one (James Nash) was easily explained by the fact that his occupation involved the use of lead-based
solder. In fact, in 1992,
John Major, writing to
John Hume stated:
[17]
In January
1997, the United Kingdom television station
Channel 4 carried a news report that suggested that members of the
Royal Anglian Regiment had also opened fire on the protesters and could have been responsible for 3 of the 14 deaths.
On May 29, 2007 it was reported that General Sir Mike Jackson, second-in-command of 2 Para on Bloody Sunday, said: "I have no doubt that innocent people were shot".
[18] This was in sharp contrast to his insistence, for more than 30 years, that those killed on the day had been members of the IRA.
[19]
The Saville Inquiry
The city Guildhall, home to the Inquiry.
Although
British Prime Minister John Major rejected
John Hume's requests for a
public inquiry into the killings, his successor,
Tony Blair, decided to start one. A second commission of inquiry, chaired by
Lord Saville, was established in January
1998 to re-examine 'Bloody Sunday'. The other Judges were
John Toohey QC, a former
Justice of the
High Court of Australia with an excellent reputation for his work on Aboriginal issues (he replaced
New Zealander Sir
Edward Somers QC, who retired from the Inquiry in 2000 for personal reasons), and Mr Justice
William Hoyt QC, former
Chief Justice of
New Brunswick and a member of the
Canadian Judicial Council. The hearings were concluded in November 2004, and the report is currently being written. The Saville Inquiry is a more comprehensive study than the Widgery Tribunal, interviewing a wide range of witnesses, including local residents, soldiers, journalists and politicians. The evidence so far has undermined to some extent 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 the interpretations that were put on their findings by the
Ministry of Defence.
Lord Saville has declined to comment on the Widgery report and has made the point that the Saville Inquiry is a judicial inquiry into 'Bloody Sunday', not the Widgery Tribunal.
Evidence given by
Martin McGuiness, the deputy leader of
Sinn Féin, to the inquiry stated that he was second-in-command of the
Derry branch of the
Provisional IRA and was present at the march. He did not answer questions about where he had been staying because he said it would compromise the safety of the individuals involved.
A claim was made at the
Saville Inquiry that McGuinness was responsible for supplying detonators for nail bombs on Bloody Sunday. Paddy Ward claimed he was the leader of the
Fianna Éireann, the youth wing of the IRA in January 1972. He claimed McGuinness, the second-in-command of the IRA in the city at the time, and another anonymous IRA member gave him bomb parts on the morning of 30 January, the date planned for the civil rights march. He said his organisation intended to attack city-centre premises in Derry on the day when civilians were shot dead by British soldiers. In response McGuinness rejected the claims as "fantasy", while Gerry O’Hara, a Sinn Féin councillor in Derry stated that he and not Ward was the Fianna leader at the time.
Many observers allege that the
Ministry of Defence acted in a way to impede the inquiry.
[20] Over 1,000 army photographs and original army helicopter video footage were never made available. Additionally, guns used on the day by the soldiers that could have been evidence in the inquiry were lost by the MoD.
[21][ Q&A: Bloody Sunday inquiry ] The MoD claimed that all the guns had been destroyed, but some were subsequently recovered in various locations (such as
Sierra Leone,
Beirut, and
Little Rock,
Arkansas) despite the obstruction.
[22]
By the time the inquiry had retired to write up its findings, it had interviewed over 900 witnesses, over seven years, making it the biggest investigation in
British legal history.
[ The cost of this process has drawn criticism. In June 2003, the cost incurred so far in pursuit of the inquiry was given as £113.2 million.[23] One year later in June 2004 the cost was given as £130 million.[24] The total cost is expected to be around £155 million.]
In mid-2005, the play ''Bloody Sunday: Scenes from the Saville Inquiry'', a dramatisation based on the Saville inquiry, opened in London, and subsequently travelled to Derry and Dublin.[25][26] The writer, journalist Richard Norton-Taylor, distilled four years of evidence into two hours of stage performance by Tricycle Theatre. The play received glowing reviews in all the British broadsheets, including ''The Times'': "The Tricycle's latest recreation of a major inquiry is its most devastating"; ''The Daily Telegraph'': "I can't praise this enthralling production too highly... exceptionally gripping courtroom drama"; and ''The Independent'': "A necessary triumph".[27]
Impact on Northern Ireland divisions
Bloody Sunday memorial in the
Bogside.
Despite the controversy, all sides agree that 'Bloody Sunday' marked a major negative turning point in the fortunes of Northern Ireland. Harold Wilson, then the Leader of the Opposition in the Commons, reiterated his belief that a united Ireland was the only possible solution to Northern Ireland's Troubles. William Craig, then Stormont Home Affairs Minister, suggested that the west bank of Derry should be ceded to the Republic of Ireland.
When it arrived in Northern Ireland, the British Army was welcomed by Roman Catholics as a neutral force there to protect them from Protestant mobs, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the B-Specials.[28] After Bloody Sunday many Catholics turned on the British army, seeing it no longer as their protector but as their enemy. Young nationalists became increasingly attracted to violent republican groups. With the Official IRA and Official Sinn Féin having moved away from mainstream Irish nationalism/republicanism towards Marxism, the Provisional IRA began to win the support of newly radicalised, disaffected young people.
In the following twenty years, the Provisional Irish Republican Army and other smaller republican groups such as the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) mounted an armed campaign against the British, by which they meant the RUC, the British Army, the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) of the British Army (and, according to their critics, the Protestant and unionist establishment). With rival paramilitary organisations appearing in both the nationalist/republican and unionist/loyalist communities (the Ulster Defence Association, Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), 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 three members of a pop band, the Miami Showband, by a gang including members of the UVF who were also members of the local army regiment, the UDR, and in uniform at the time, and the killing by the Provisionals of Second World War veterans and their families attending a war wreath laying in Enniskillen.
With the official cessation of violence by some of the major paramilitary organisations and the creation of the power-sharing executive at Stormont in Belfast under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the Saville Tribunal's re-examination of the events of that day is widely hoped to provide a thorough account of the events of Bloody Sunday.
Artistic reaction
Bloody Sunday
mural in Derry
The incident has been commemorated by U2 in their 1983 protest song "Sunday Bloody Sunday". There was also another song by the Stiff Little Fingers called "Bloody Sunday."
The John Lennon album ''Some Time In New York City'' features a song entitled "Sunday Bloody Sunday", inspired by the incident, as well as the song "The Luck of the Irish", which dealt more with the Irish conflict in general. (Lennon was of Irish descent.)
Paul McCartney (also of Irish descent) issued a single shortly after Bloody Sunday titled "Give Ireland Back to the Irish", expressing his views on the matter. It was one of few McCartney solo songs to be banned by the BBC.[29]
Christy Moore's song "Minds Locked Shut" on the album "Graffiti Tongue" is all about the events of the day, and names the dead civilians.
The Celtic metal band Cruachan also addressed the incident in the song Bloody Sunday.[30]
The events of the day have also been dramatised in the two 2002 television dramas, ''Bloody Sunday'' (starring James Nesbitt) and ''Sunday'' by Jimmy McGovern.
Brian Friel's 1973 play ''The Freedom of the City'' deals with the incident from the viewpoint of three civilians.
References
1. Derry-Londonderry name dispute
2. 'Bloody Sunday', Derry 30 January 1972 - Names of the Dead and Injured CAIN Web Service, 23 March 2006. Retrieved 27 August 2006.
3. More 'butcher' than 'grocer' David Granville
4. Schooled in scandal Nick Cohen
5. 1972: 'Bloody Sunday' report excuses Army
6. Those Are Real Bullets, Aren't They?, Peter Pringle & Philip Jacobson, , , Fourth Estate, 2000, ISBN 1-84115-316-8 P. 293: "Youngsters who had seen their friends die that day flocked to join the IRA..."
7. The Bloody Sunday Inquiry - The Families Speak Out, Eamonn McCann, , , Pluto Press, 2006, ISBN 0-7453-2510-6 P. 4-6
8. 'Bloody Sunday', Derry 30 January 1972 - Details of Source Material CAIN Web Service, 23 March 2006. Retrieved 27 August 2006.
9. Those Are Real Bullets, Aren't They?, Peter Pringle & Philip Jacobson, , , Fourth Estate, 2000, ISBN 1-84115-316-8 P. 100: "... the level of rioting was no greater than usual - and no petrol bombs or nail bombs were being thrown."
10. 'Bloody Sunday', Derry 30 January 1972
11. Inquiry urged to identify soldiers
12. Widgery Report
13. McGuinness is named as bomb runner John Innes
14. Rumours of plan to clear Bogside are 'nonsense' David Sharrock
15. Bloody Sunday Inquiry Transcript - Day 008
16. 'Bloody Sunday', 30 January 1972 - A Chronology of Events CAIN Web Service, 23 March 2006. Retrieved 27 August 2006.
17. Eyewitness Bloody Sunday, Don Mullan, , , Printing Press, 1997, ISBN 0-86327-586-9
18. Bloody Sunday victims 'innocent'
19. "Bloody Sunday victims innocent says Jackson", ''Irish News'' (Belfast newspaper), May 29, 2007, pp 1 and 11
20. Bloody Sunday footage release calls
21. Concern over Bloody Sunday guns
22. Riddle of the Derry guns Philip Jacobson
23. Bloody Sunday Para faces jail for contempt Chris Boffey
24. Saville inquiry judges retire
25. Out of crises, a drama Liz Hoggard
26. Bloody Sunday:Scenes from the Saville Inquiry
27. BLOODY SUNDAY: Scenes from the Saville Inquiry
28. This "Honeymoon period", as it has come to be known, ended around the time of the Falls Road Curfew on 3 July 1970. See CAIN for details here. It is also worth mentioning that the 'B-Specials' were disbanded and replaced by the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) on 1 April 1970.
29. The seven ages of Paul McCartney BBC News Entertainment, 17 June 2006. Retrieved 27 August 2006.
30. CRUACHAN INTERVIEW WITH Keith Fay! Giancarlo Bolther, rock-impressions.com. Retrieved 27 August 2006.
Further reading
★ The Irish War, Tony Geraghty, , , Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8018-7117-4
★ The Road To Bloody Sunday (revised edition), Dr Raymond McClean, , , Printing Press, 1997, ISBN 0-946451-37-0 (extracts available online)
★ Bloody Sunday In Derry, Eamonn McCann, , , Printing Press, 1998, ISBN 0-86322-139-4
External links
★ The Bloody Sunday Trust
★ Madden & Finucane Bloody Sunday index
★ CAIN Web Service Bloody Sunday index
★ Guardian Coverage
★ The Widgery Report (from Cain website)
★ The Saville Inquiry official website
★ BBC Coverage of the Saville Inquiry
★ "Bloody Sunday" film from 2002
The events of the day
★ Guardian Interactive Guide
★ BBC Interactive Guide
Contemporary newspaper coverage
★ "13 killed as paratroops break riot" from The Guardian, Monday January 31 1972
★ "Bogsiders insist that soldiers shot first" from The Guardian, Tuesday February 1 1972
Importance and impact
★ "Shootings 'triggered decades of violence'"
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