The expression Bloody Sunday refers to a sad episode in Northern Irish history. It refers to the events of Sunday January 30, 1972 in Derry, Northern Ireland, when 14 peaceful demonstrators were killed by British army fire. The day was recorded as a black day in history, and provoked a veritable outcry following the massacre of innocent people…
January 30, 1972: a march is organized by NICRA. It starts at Creggann’s Central Drive, crosses the Bogside district on the bridge that runs alongside it, and ends at Guildhall Square.
Ivan Cooper led this peaceful march, advocating equal rights for Catholics and Protestants. Despite his dialogue with the Unionist authorities and his attempts to negotiate with the British forces of order, the demonstration was declared illegal by the English authorities.
The event will therefore be closely watched.
At the mouth of William Street, a hundred or so RUC men were stationed, and, unusually, British army paratroopers with their armored vehicles came to lend a hand.
On the demonstrators’ side, at around 2pm, in the face of this deployment of force, rumors were circulating about a possible change of route for the march.
By 2.20pm the crowd was growing, and everyone was inviting friends, relatives and neighbors to join in. At around 2.40pm, the procession made its way down the Brandywell district to cheering applause.
The crowd was close to 10,000 when the first demonstrators passed the Bogside Inn at around 3.25pm, and the entire width of William Street, including the sidewalks, was occupied. The march’s organizers caught up with the front of the procession, which now came up against army and police roadblocks at the junction with Rossville Street.
And it’s from the top of the platform that the leaders ask the crowd to gather at Free Derry Corner. Almost everyone heads up Rossville Street to the venue for the meeting with Bernadette Devlin. Confusion began to reign, as some of the crowd were unaware of the new instructions.
Slogans were followed for some twenty minutes by insults and the throwing of various objects. The soldiers responded by firing rubber bullets. The rioters withdrew and resumed their charge behind corrugated iron sheets as shields. The riot guns came into play, and CS grenades were fired into the crowd by the army. By 3.40pm, John Johnston and Damien Donaghey had collapsed on William Street, wounded by assault rifle fire from the 1st Parachute Battalion.
The first witnesses understand that this time it’s not just a case of police repression. From the podium, the leaders called on the population to remain calm and not to respond to provocation. The news spread like wildfire, and the army fired live ammunition. Armored vehicles loaded with paratroopers burst into Rossville Street. The massacre begins…
William Mac Christal (witness): I was on Chamberlain street behind a gang of youths throwing stones. I saw on the other side of Rossville Street, on the ground, a saracen in tears, I ran towards the allotments when I heard shots coming from William Street, a bullet whistled over my head and lodged in the opposite wall. Someone had just been hit. I saw Father Daly bending over the body of a young man. There was another man assisting him. I ran to offer my help, knelt down, the army was firing over our heads. The bullets were coming from our backs and were going to hit the opposite wall. When I arrived at the scene, I didn’t see any weapons, pistols, nail or stone bombs near the body. We carried the body across High Street to Waterloo Street. We laid him down without his coat and Mr. MacCloskey covered him with a quilt. By then he was dead. His name was Jackie Duddy.
A.Mac Guinness (witness): I was one meter away from my friend Damiens Donaghey , when he collapsed on the ground, his blood coming out of his body. He’d just been hit, he hadn’t done anything, he never threw a single stone. He was just watching the demonstration on Kells Walk with me.
The situation now takes a dramatic turn. This is what later became known as “Bloody Sunday“.
Two versions are available:
A swift inquiry by a commission cleared the British army, concluding that it was responding toIRA fire. However, no weapons were found at the scene, nor were any traces of explosives found on the victims. What’s more, all the casualties were among the demonstrators: no soldiers were killed or wounded that day. This version of events has long been in doubt.
This day, now recorded in history as Bloody Sunday, marks a new stage in the Northern Irish conflict. The ranks of the IRA swelled after this massacre. The British army lost credibility in the minds of republicans, who no longer saw it as an interposing force but as a repressive force on a par with the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).
On May 16, 1997, Channel 4 broadcast a documentary by journalists Lena Ferguson and Alex Thomson in which four soldiers anonymously revealed that the paratroopers had fired into the crowd at hip-point, contradicting the official claim that the shots had been aimed at specific, hostile targets.
As a result of criticism of the British version of this event, Minister Tony Blair reopened the inquiry into these events in 1998. The inquiry has been entrusted to Judge Mark Saville, assisted by Canadian and Australian magistrates. Between 1998 and November 2004, 921 witnesses were audited and 1,555 written testimonies were examined. Several soldiers will confess to having lied in their earlier statements, and will admit that the victims were unarmed.
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