1972 Bloody Sunday

On 30 January 1972, 30,000 people marched in Derry to protest internment. The march, the biggest ever organized by the Civil Rights Association, peacefully made its way towards Guildhall Square. British troops blocked blocked the route at William Street so the people assembled at "Free Derry Corner" in the Bogside area. Suddenly, armored cars appeared from behind barriers and headed for Rossville Street. British troops effectively boxed in hundreds of people on waste-ground between the Flats and William Street. Soldiers spilled out of the armored cars, their helmets identifying them a Paratroopers. None of the soldiers carried batons and shields as riot control troops do. All were fully armed with combat rifles. They used these rifle as clubs as the waded through the crowd.

Without warning, the clear and unmistaken sound of shots from British army issue SLRs rang out. More shots, and then people began to fall. The air rang to the sound of rapid gunfire and screams. Causally soldiers fired indiscriminately, often from the hip, into a fleeing and unarmed crowd. At the end of the day, 13 people lay dead and 17 wounded, one of whom died later. One man who was photographed being arrested and taken into a British army Saracen was later found shot dead.

Within hours, the British propaganda machine was in full operation claiming that they had shot dead thirteen "gunmen" and bombers, in an attempt to justify the planned, cold-blooded murder of peaceful, unarmed civil rights protesters.

The Irish Republican Army was now the last resort of the nationalist people. To protect them from the combined official and unofficial forces of the 6-County statelet, and then to go on the offensive to rid Ireland once and for all of British interference and tyranny, the IRA was forced to reorganize from near extinction. With nothing available but a few old and unreliable weapons, the ranks of the IRA were nonetheless swelled by a risen people who would no longer wait to be crushed by an undemocratic and despotic state.

The victims of the Bloody Sunday Massacre

Jack Duddy, aged 17	Paddy Doherty, aged 31	Bernard McGuigan, aged 41	High Gilmore, aged 17
Kevin McElhinney, aged 17	Michael McDaid, aged 20	William Nash, aged 19	John Young, aged 17
Michael Kelly, aged 17	Jim Wray, aged 22	Gerard Donaghy, aged 17	Gerard McKinney, aged 35
	William McKinney, aged 26	John Johnston, aged 59	(Mr Johnston died in June as a result of his wounds)

Thirteen were also wounded by gunfire. Many other people were assaulted and beaten by the Paras.