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Bloody Sunday: 30th January 1972
Skeffington on Bloody Sunday in "Cal"
In chapter 3 Cal talks with Crilly and Skeffington as he wants "out". Skeffington refers to different events in the Irish history, trying to change Cal's intention:
"I know what you're thinking. But I was in Derry that day. They had us cowering behind a wall. There was an old man lying in the open. In the rush one of his shoes had come off and was lying on its side. There was a big hole in the heel of his sock. Can you believe that? Will that be recorded in the history books? I could hear him dying, Cahal, I could see the blood running out of him over the paving stones. Then a priest came, waving a white hanky, and gave him the Last Rites." Skeffington continued to stare at Cal as he talked. His bottom lip dropped, showing his lower teeth. Cal looked away but heard him say, "And we were all Irishmen living in our own country. They were the trespassers."
- from: Bernard MacLaverty, Cal
- Diesterweg: Frankfurt 1988, S. 58
On Sunday, January
30th, 1972 there was a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march 
against internment in Derry (or Londonderry?). The march left from
Creggan towards the Bogside area of the city. Most of the
marchers followed the organisers introductions and turned right
into Rossville Street to hold a meeting at 'Free Derry Corner'.
However a section of the crowd continued along William Street to
the British Army barricade. A riot developed. Later, away from
the riot and also out of sight of the meeting, soldiers in a
derelict building opened fire.
Bloody Sunday march and
commemoration, 1996
At the same time Paratroopers requested permission to begin an arrest operation. An order was given for a 'sub unit' of the 1st Battilion Parachute Regiment to move into William Street to begin an arrest operation specifically stated that the soldiers were "not to conduct running battle down Rossville Street". The soldiers of Support Company were under the command of Ted Loden, then a Major in the Parachute Regiment (and were the only soldiers to fire at the crowd from street level). Then soldiers of the Support Company of the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment began to open fire on the marchers in the Rossville Street area. The shooting ended with 13 people dead and a further 14 injured from gunshots.
British paratroopers arrest civilians during protest
Don Mullan, eyewitness to the events, remembers 'Bloody Sunday' in the book: "A boy on Bloody Sunday", Mullan was 15 years old when he witnessed Bloody Sunday. It was the first Civil Rights demonstration that he had ever taken part in and he had never expected it to become such a riot "which would leave 13 civilians dead, 14 wounded, a community deep in shock and a nation in turmoil."
The photograph below was taken of Bernard McGuigan after he had been shot by a soldier of the Parachure Regiment on 'Bloody Sunday' (30 Januray 1972).
| And finally in
1998: ".... that a
Tribunal be established for inquiring into a definite
matter of urgent public importance, namely the events on
Sunday, 30 January 1972 which led to loss of life in
connection with the procession in Londonderry on that
day, taking account of any new information relevant to
events on that day." from: The Bloody Sunday Inquiry (war mal online: http://www.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org.uk/) |
U2
War
Sunday
Bloody Sunday
I can't believe the news today,
I can't close my eyes and make it go away.
How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long? Tonight we can be as one.
Broken bottles under children's feet,
Bodies strewn across a dead end street,
But I won't heed the battle call,
It puts my back up, puts my back up against the wall.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.
And the battle's just begun,
There's many lost, but tell me who has won?
The trenches dug within our hearts,
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.
How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long, Tonight we can be as one.
Tonight, tonight.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Wipe the tears from your eyes,
Wipe your tears away,
Wipe your blood shot eyes.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.
Sunday, bloody Sunday.
And it's true we are immune.
When fact is fiction and T.V. is reality,
And today the millions cry,
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die.
The real battle just begun.
To claim the victory Jesus won,
On a Sunday bloody Sunday,
Sunday bloody Sunday.
from: lyrics.ch - the international lyrics server
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by Gitta
© EN21L Gymnasium Ulricianum Aurich Stand: 23-05-98