The Boys of Derry (Sunday Bloody Sunday Book 1)

Bloody Sunday (1972)

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Bloody Sunday

Inside the school the rules are strict, and outside the school there are rules as well. Different rules, scrappy, and managed by the boys themselves. Poverty and restlessness surrounds them all, and the governments that rule over them are brawling just as much as the boys.

The reality of living in the Bogside as young Irish adults continues, with the unremitting tendrils of competing ideologies creeping into the corners of their lives.

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Street barricades continue to arise, and stones continue to pelt the authorities, amid a growing faction of men who believe bullets and bombs are the needed push back against the weaponry of the police and soldiers. The governments are ineffectual, and escalating conflicts between competing beliefs continue to affect everyone in the Bogside. Between the various factions of ideology and their Irish historical past, there is a day that is coming to meet them in their late adolescence, which will usher in their adulthood with a shocking finality.

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In all, 28 people were shot by the paratroopers; 13 died on the day and another individual died of his injuries four months later. Most of the fatalities were killed in four main areas: All of the soldiers responsible insisted that they had shot at, and hit, gunmen or bomb-throwers. The Saville Report concluded that all of those shot were unarmed and that none were posing a serious threat.

It also concluded that none of the soldiers fired in response to attacks, or threatened attacks, by gunmen or bomb-throwers. Thirteen people were shot and killed, with another man later dying of his wounds. No British soldier was wounded by gunfire or reported any injuries, nor were any bullets or nail bombs recovered to back up their claims. On 2 February , the day that 12 of those killed were buried, there was a general strike in the Republic.

It was described as the biggest general strike in Europe since the Second World War relative to population. The same day, irate crowds burned down the British embassy on Merrion Square in Dublin.

In the days following Bloody Sunday, Bernadette Devlin , the independent Irish nationalist Member of Parliament for Mid Ulster , expressed anger at what she perceived as British government attempts to stifle accounts being reported about the shootings. Having witnessed the events firsthand, she was infuriated that Speaker Selwyn Lloyd consistently denied her the chance to speak in Parliament about the shootings, although parliamentary convention decreed that any MP witnessing an incident under discussion would be granted an opportunity to speak about it in Parliament.

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 10 weeks on 10 April and published within 11 weeks on 19 April —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 witnesses to the event disputed the report's conclusions and regarded it as a whitewash. It has been argued that firearms residue on some deceased may have come from contact with the soldiers who themselves moved some of the bodies, or that the presence of lead on the hands of one James Wray was easily explained by the fact that his occupation involved the use of lead-based solder.

Although there were many IRA men—both Official and Provisional—at the protest, it is claimed they were all unarmed, apparently because it was anticipated that the paratroopers would attempt to "draw them out". One paratrooper who gave evidence at the tribunal testified that they were told by an officer to expect a gunfight and "We want some kills".

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. An inquest into the deaths was held in August The city's coroner , Hubert O'Neill, a retired British Army major, issued a statement at the completion of the inquest. This Sunday became known as Bloody Sunday and bloody it was.

Bloody Sunday () - Wikipedia

It was quite unnecessary. It strikes me that the Army ran amok that day and shot without thinking what they were doing. They were shooting innocent people. These people may have been taking part in a march that was banned but that does not justify the troops coming in and firing live rounds indiscriminately. I would say without hesitation that it was sheer, unadulterated murder.

Two Protestant civilians were shot dead and others wounded by the paratroopers, who claimed they were returning fire at loyalist gunmen.

This sparked angry demonstrations by local Protestants, and the UDA declared: These gun-happy louts must be removed from the streets". In , John Major , writing to John Hume stated: But that was not done as a deliberate malicious act. It was done as an act of war". 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 to re-examine Bloody Sunday. The hearings were concluded in November , and the report was published 15 June Lord Saville declined to comment on the Widgery report and made the point that the Saville Inquiry was a judicial inquiry into Bloody Sunday, not the Widgery Tribunal. He claimed that 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. Many observers allege that the Ministry of Defence acted in a way to impede the inquiry. Additionally, guns used on the day by the soldiers that could have been evidence in the inquiry were lost by the MoD. By the time the inquiry had retired to write up its findings, it had interviewed over witnesses, over seven years, making it the biggest investigation in British legal history.

The inquiry was expected to report in late but was delayed until after the general election on 6 May The report of the inquiry [92] was published on 15 June The report concluded, "The firing by soldiers of 1 PARA on Bloody Sunday caused the deaths of 13 people and injury to a similar number, none of whom was posing a threat of causing death or serious injury.

The report concluded that an Official IRA sniper fired on British soldiers, albeit that on the balance of evidence his shot was fired after the Army shots that wounded Damien Donaghey and John Johnston. The Inquiry rejected the sniper's account that this shot had been made in reprisal, stating the view that he and another Official IRA member had already been in position, and the shot had probably been fired simply because the opportunity had presented itself. Regarding the soldiers in charge on the day of Bloody Sunday, the Saville Inquiry arrived at the following findings:.

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Mr Speaker, I am deeply patriotic. I never want to believe anything bad about our country. I never want to call into question the behaviour of our soldiers and our army, who I believe to be the finest in the world. And I have seen for myself the very difficult and dangerous circumstances in which we ask our soldiers to serve. But the conclusions of this report are absolutely clear. There is no doubt, there is nothing equivocal, there are no ambiguities. What happened on Bloody Sunday was both unjustified and unjustifiable.

Following the publication of the report, a murder investigation was begun by the Police Service of Northern Ireland 's Legacy Investigation Branch.

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Harold Wilson , then the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, reiterated his belief that a united Ireland was the only possible solution to Northern Ireland's Troubles. Young nationalists became increasingly attracted to violent republican groups. In the following twenty years, the Provisional Irish Republican Army and other smaller republican groups such as the Irish National Liberation Army INLA stepped up their armed campaigns against the state and those seen as being in service to it.

But you do not defend the British Army by defending the indefensible. He also said that this was not a premeditated action, though "there was no point in trying to soften or equivocate" as "what happened should never, ever have happened". Cameron then apologised on behalf of the British Government by saying he was "deeply sorry". Stephen Pollard, solicitor representing several of the soldiers, said on 15 June that Saville had cherry-picked the evidence and did not have justification for his findings.

In an actively serving British army soldier from Belfast was charged with inciting hatred by a surviving relative of the deceased, due to their online use of social media to promote sectarian slogans about the killings while featuring banners of the Parachute Regiment logo.

In January , shortly before the annual Bloody Sunday remembrance march, two Parachute Regiment flags appeared in the loyalist Fountain, and Waterside, Drumahoe areas of Derry. The display of the flags was heavily criticised by nationalist politicians and relatives of the Bloody Sunday dead. In loyalists in Cookstown erected the flags in opposition, close to the route of a St.

Patrick's Day parade in the town. Paul McCartney who is of Irish descent [] recorded the first song in response only two days after the incident. The single, entitled " Give Ireland Back to the Irish ", expressed his views on the matter. Lennon, who was of Irish descent, also spoke at a protest in New York in support of the victims and families of Bloody Sunday.

Butler stated, "…the Sunday Bloody Sunday thing had just happened in Ireland, when the British troops opened fire on the Irish demonstrators… So I came up with the title 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath', and sort of put it in how the band was feeling at the time, getting away from management, mixed with the state Ireland was in. His report exonerated the army and cast suspicion on many of the victims, suggesting they had been handling bombs and guns.

Relatives of the dead and the wider nationalist community campaigned for a fresh public inquiry, which was finally granted by then Prime Minister Tony Blair in It established the innocence of the victims and laid responsibility for what happened on the army.

Prime Minister David Cameron called the killings "unjustified and unjustifiable". The families of the victims of Bloody Sunday felt that the inquiry's findings vindicated those who were killed, raising the question of prosecutions and compensation. History History Bloody Sunday. Bloody Sunday An overview of the events of 30 January in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, using archive footage and interviews.

Timeline of key events: Free Derry British troops had been sent into Derry as a peacekeeping force in August and had initially been welcomed by the predominantly Catholic nationalist community as a preferable alternative to what they saw as the discrimination of the local Northern Ireland security forces.

Reaction and inquiries While the British Army maintained that its troops had responded after coming under fire, the people of the Bogside saw it as murder. The Troubles The conflict in Northern Ireland,

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