Blodiga söndagen 1972
Bloody Sundayor the Bogside Massacre[ 1 ] was a massacre on 30 January when British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a protest march in the Bogside area of Derry[ n 1 ] Northern Ireland. Thirteen men were killed outright and the death of another man four months later was attributed to gunshot injuries from the incident. Many of the victims were shot while fleeing from the soldiers, and some were shot while trying to help the wounded.
The blodiga söndagen 1972 were from the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment "1 Para"the same battalion implicated in the Ballymurphy massacre several months before. Two investigations were held by the British government. The Widgery Tribunalheld in the aftermath, largely cleared the soldiers and British authorities of blame. It described some of the soldiers' shooting as "bordering on the reckless", but accepted their claims that they shot at gunmen and bomb-throwers.
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The report was widely criticised as a " whitewash ". The Saville Inquirychaired by Lord Saville of Newdigatewas established in to reinvestigate the incident much more thoroughly. Following a twelve-year investigation, Saville's report was made public in and concluded that the killings were "unjustified" and "unjustifiable".
It found that all of those shot were unarmed, that none were posing a serious threat, that no bombs were thrown and that soldiers "knowingly put forward false accounts" to justify their firing. One former soldier was charged with murder, but the case was dropped two years later when evidence was deemed inadmissible. Bloody Sunday came to be regarded as one of the most significant events of the Troubles because so many civilians were killed by forces of the state, in view of the public and the press.
Support for the Provisional Irish Republican Army IRA rose, and there was a surge of recruitment into the organisation, especially locally. The City of Derry was perceived by many Catholics and Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland to be the epitome of what was described as "fifty years of Unionist misrule": despite having a nationalist majority, gerrymandering ensured elections to the City Corporation always returned a unionist majority.
The city was perceived to be blodiga söndagen 1972 of public blodiga söndagen 1972 motorways were not extended to it, a university was opened in the smaller Protestant -majority town of Coleraine rather than Derry and, above all, the city's housing stock was in a generally poor state. It was the scene of the major riot known as Battle of the Bogside in Augustwhich pushed the Northern Ireland administration to ask for military support.
While many Catholics initially welcomed the British Army as a neutral force — in contrast to the Royal Ulster Constabulary RUCwhich was regarded as a sectarian police force — relations between them soon deteriorated. In response to rising levels of violence across Northern Ireland, internment without trial was introduced on 9 August IRA activity also increased across Northern Ireland, with thirty British soldiers being killed in the remaining months ofin contrast to the ten soldiers killed during the pre-internment period of the year.
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On 18 January the Northern Irish Prime MinisterBrian Faulknerbanned all parades and marches in the region until the end of the year. Protesters marched to an internment camp but were stopped by soldiers of the Parachute Regiment. When some protesters threw stones and tried to go around the barbed wire, paratroopers drove them back by firing rubber bullets at close range and making blodiga söndagen 1972 charges.
The paratroopers badly beat a number of protesters and had to be physically restrained by their own officers. These allegations of brutality by paratroopers were reported widely on television and in the press. Some in the British Army also thought there had been undue violence by the paratroopers. The authorities decided to allow it to proceed in the Bogside, but to stop it from reaching Guildhall Squareas planned by the organisers, to avoid rioting.
The paratroopers arrived in Derry on the morning of the march and took up positions. He in turn gave orders to Major Ted Lodenwho commanded the company who would launch the arrest operation. The protesters planned on marching from Bishop's Field, in the Creggan housing estate, to the Guildhall in the city centre, where they would hold a rally. The march set off at about p.
There were 10,—15, people on the march, with many joining along its route. The march made its way along William Street but, as it neared the city centre, its path was blocked by British Army barriers. The organisers redirected the march down Rossville Street, intending to hold the rally at Free Derry Corner instead. However, some broke off from the march and blodiga söndagen 1972 throwing stones at soldiers manning the barriers.
The soldiers fired rubber bullets, CS gas and water cannons. Some of the crowd spotted paratroopers occupying a derelict three-story building overlooking William Street and began throwing stones up at the windows. At about p. The civilians Damien Donaghy and John Johnston were shot and wounded while standing on waste ground opposite the building.
These were the first shots fired.
50 år sedan "Blodiga söndagen"
At p. The paratroopers, on foot and in armoured vehicles, chased people down Rossville Street and into the Bogside. Two people were knocked down by the vehicles. MacLellan had ordered that only one company of paratroopers be sent through the barriers, on foot, and that they should not chase people down Rossville Street.