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Bloody Sunday (1972)

For other events of the same name, see Bloody Sunday.

Bloody Sunday
Part of the Troubles
The Catholic priest Edward Daly waving a blood-stained white handkerchief while trying to escort the mortally wounded Jackie Duddy to safety
LocationDerry,[n 1] Northern Ireland
Coordinates54°59′49″N 07°19′32″W / 54.99694°N 7.32556°W / 54.99694; -7.32556
Date30 January 1972 (1972-01-30)
16:10 (UTC+00:00)
Attack type
Mass shooting, state terrorism
WeaponsL1A1 SLR rifles
Deaths14 (13 immediate, 1 died four months later)
Injured15+ (12 from gunshots, two from vehicle impact, others from rubber bullets and flying debris)
PerpetratorsBritish Army (Parachute Regiment)

Bloody Sunday, or the Bogside Massacre,[1] was a massacre on 30 January 1972 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.[2] Other protesters were injured by shrapnel, rubber bullets, or batons, two were run down by British Army vehicles, and some were beaten.[3][4] All of those shot were Catholics. The march had been organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) to protest against internment without trial. The soldiers were from the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment ("1 Para"), the same battalion implicated in the Ballymurphy massacre several months before.[5]

Two investigations were held by the British government. The Widgery Tribunal, held 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. The report was widely criticised as a "whitewash".[6][7][8]

The Saville Inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, was established in 1998 to reinvestigate the incident much more thoroughly. Following a twelve-year investigation, Saville's report was made public in 2010 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.[9][10] The soldiers denied shooting the named victims but also denied shooting anyone by mistake.[11] On publication of the report, British Prime Minister David Cameron formally apologised.[12] Following this, police began a murder investigation into the killings. One former soldier was charged with murder, but the case was dropped two years later when evidence was deemed inadmissible.[13] Following an appeal by the families of the victims, the Public Prosecution Service resumed the prosecution.[14]

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.[1] It was the highest number of people killed in a shooting incident during the conflict and is considered the worst mass shooting in Northern Irish history.[15] Bloody Sunday fuelled Catholic and Irish nationalist hostility to the British Army and worsened the conflict. Support for the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) rose, and there was a surge of recruitment into the organisation, especially locally.[16] The Republic of Ireland held a national day of mourning, and huge crowds besieged and burnt down the chancery of the British Embassy in Dublin.


Cite error: There are <ref group=n> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=n}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ a b Eamonn McCann (2006). The Bloody Sunday Inquiry – The Families Speak Out. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 0-7453-2510-6. pp. 4–6
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference CAINBS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ 'Bloody Sunday', Derry 30 January 1972 – Names of the Dead and Injured Archived 6 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN). 23 March 2006. Retrieved 27 August 2006.
  4. ^ Extracts from 'The Road to Bloody Sunday' by Dr Raymond McClean Archived 9 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 16 February 2007.
  5. ^ McGlinchey, Marisa (2019). Unfinished business: The politics of 'dissident' Irish republicanism. Manchester University Press. pp. 161–162. ISBN 978-0719096983.
  6. ^ David Granville (28 July 2005). "More 'butcher' than 'grocer'". The Morning Star. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 18 May 2007.
  7. ^ Nick Cohen (1 February 2004). "Schooled in scandal". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 18 May 2007.
  8. ^ "1972: 'Bloody Sunday' report excuses Army". BBC News. 19 April 1972. Archived from the original on 6 January 2008. Retrieved 18 May 2007.
  9. ^ "Bloody Sunday inquiry: key findings". The Guardian. 15 June 2010. Archived from the original on 27 October 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  10. ^ McDonald, Henry; Norton-Taylor, Richard (10 June 2010). "Bloody Sunday killings to be ruled unlawful". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2010.
  11. ^ Principal Conclusions and Overall Assessment of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry Archived 23 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine. The Stationery Office. pp. 36–37
  12. ^ "Bloody Sunday report published". BBC News. 15 June 2010. Archived from the original on 20 March 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2011.
  13. ^ O'Neill, Julian (2 July 2021). "Why did prosecutors drop cases against ex-soldiers?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 11 July 2021. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  14. ^ Young, David (22 September 2022). "Halted prosecution of Soldier F over Bloody Sunday murders to resume". MSN. Archived from the original on 22 September 2022. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  15. ^ Significant Violent Incidents During the Conflict Archived 2 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN).
  16. ^ Peter Pringle and Philip Jacobson (2000). Those Are Real Bullets, Aren't They?. London: Fourth Estate. ISBN 1-84115-316-8. P. 293: "Youngsters who had seen their friends die that day flocked to join the IRA…"

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