The Bloody Sunday

The Good Friday Agreement in Ireland was a result of much violence in Ireland at the time of its signing and before its signing and one of these conflicts was realized with the bloody Sunday attacks on citizens of Ireland. Bloody Sunday is also referred to as the bogside massacre and this was an attack that occurred on January 30 in 1972 in Northern Ireland. The attack happened in the area of Derry northern Ireland and was on 26 civil rights protesters against British interference in Ireland. The attackers during this heinous attack were British soldiers of the British army. During the attack 13 men died and 7 of these males were only teens, this makes the attack all the more terrible. The people who were injured in the attack numbered only two as the rest of the protesters ended up dying soon after the attack including one who died from injuries a full 4 months later. What makes this massacre even worse is that many of the protesters were shot in the back and had no way of defending themselves against the well trained British Army as well as the fact that the massacre happened as a result of a civil rights march by the northern Irish people.

In regards to the bloody Sunday attacks, two investigations into why this occurred were started by the government of Britain. The Widgery Tribunal that was held in the aftermath of the massacre largely cleared the soldiers and the British government of all blame for the massacre. This was declared a whitewash by prime minister Tony Blair and he encouraged another investigation to take place in 1998. This reinvestigation led to evidence against the soldiers that led to the criminal investigations of the soldiers involved in the attack. This came as a small consolation to the families that were affected by the massacre but many were thankful that at least something was done to honor the 26 civil rights protesters.