Bloody Sunday (1972)

Bloody Sunday, Domhnach na Folaij, in Irish, is the term used to describe an incident in Derry, Northern Ireland, on the 30th January 1972 in which 26 civil rights protesters were shot by members of the 1st Battalion of the British Parachute Regiment during a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in the Bogside area of the city. Thirteen people died immediately, while the death of another person 4½ months later has been attributed to the injuries he received on the day. Many witnesses including bystanders and journalists testify that all those shot were unarmed. Five of those wounded were shot in the back. 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 eyewitnesses , 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". 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. Mural by Bogside Artists depicting Father Daly waving a white handkerchief while trying to escort the mortally wounded Jackie Duddy to safety.