Bloody Sunday (Northern Ireland 1972)

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35. Bloody Sunday Commemorative March (Derry, 2007)
The Guildhall in Derry, site of the 2nd Inquiry (1998–2010) by Lord Saville
Memorial to the victims in Derry

As Bloody Sunday (also Bloody Sunday , English Bloody Sunday , Irish Domhnach na Fola ) January 30, 1972 is referred to in Northern Ireland . On that day in the Northern Irish city of Derry , 13 Irishmen were shot dead and 13 others shot by soldiers of the British Parachute Regiment at a demonstration for civil rights and against the British government 's internment policy under Edward Heath . As the victims were unarmed, the event escalated the Northern Ireland conflict. It was only much later that the British government commented on the event: on June 15, 2010, British Prime Minister David Cameron , on behalf of the government, asked forgiveness for the actions of the British soldiers.

course of events

According to the British Army , demonstrators in the Catholic district of Bogside opened fire on the soldiers, which they only returned. However, this is in clear contradiction to statements made by participants in the protest march and to the fact that no British soldier was injured, but at least five demonstrators were hit from behind. It is still unclear what military role the 30 or so paratroopers involved, who were not trained to protect the train by the police, were intended to play that day. What is certain is that around 100 shots were fired after the command to cease fire.

An initial investigation into the incident by Lord Widgery three months later exonerated the army leadership and the soldiers involved. However, since there were strong doubts about the neutrality of the commission of inquiry from the outset, this result was rejected by most Irish and international observers. The name Widgery, as well as the location of Coleraine , where the inquiry took place, have therefore become synonymous in Northern Ireland with claims made by the British Army which apparently did not agree with the observations of many witnesses. For a long time, the then IRA member and later Sinn Féin politician , Martin McGuinness , was also credited with the statement that he himself fired the first shot on Bloody Sunday . However, he has always denied this assertion.

On 22 February 1972, in response to Bloody Sunday, the IRA carried out a bomb attack on the Parachute Brigade headquarters at Aldershot Garrison . However, the attack did not hit any soldiers, but killed six civilians and a Catholic military chaplain.

In January 1998, in the face of persistent protests from relatives about the initial investigations , then Prime Minister Tony Blair announced a thorough revision under Lord Saville . The investigative report, the so-called Saville Report , was finally published on June 15, 2010 and came to the conclusion that the British soldiers fired first and had not been fired on before. On the occasion of the presentation of the 5,000-page report, Prime Minister David Cameron asked for forgiveness for the fatal shooting on behalf of the British government. He deeply regrets the use of force by the British Army. Cameron described the actions of the soldiers as unjustified and unacceptable.

Therefore, on September 22, 2011, the British government decided to compensate the survivors of the victims of Bloody Sunday . It was initially unclear who was to receive this compensation – and in what amount. Some of the victims' families had announced that they would not seek compensation until the soldiers deployed were charged. Two sisters of a killed demonstrator immediately refused compensation.

A murder investigation was launched in 2012 and in November 2015 a former British soldier, now 65, was arrested on strong suspicion. On March 14, 2019, it was announced that the attorney general's office would indict a soldier identified as Soldier F on two counts of murder (James Wray and William McKinney) and four counts of attempted murder. For 16 other soldiers and two official IRA men, however, there was not enough evidence to charge.

Follow

As a result of Bloody Sunday , the Northern Ireland conflict intensified significantly, and the IRA carried out several attacks as acts of revenge. After the news broke, an angry mob stormed the British Embassy in Dublin and burned it to the ground. 1972 became the bloodiest year of the Northern Ireland conflict.

On the 35th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in 2007 , the republican party Sinn Féin officially recognized the reformed police force in Northern Ireland for the first time .

quotes

“It is striking that on that bloody Sunday the British soldiers just ran amok and, without really thinking, shot wildly around. You killed innocent people. The fact that these people took part in an unauthorized demonstration does not by any means justify the behavior of the soldiers. For this reason I describe the behavior of the soldiers as nothing more than mere murder.”

– Hubert O'Neill, City of Derry Medical Examiner : in the autopsy report of the victims

"The Government made it absolutely clear as early as 1974 that all those who died on Bloody Sunday 1972 in Northern Ireland are innocent people - despite allegations that the victims had firearms or bombs with them when they were shot. I hope that all families of the victims will accept this assurance.”

– John Major , Prime Minister of the United Kingdom : in a letter to John Hume , 1998 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

The victims

The individual dead were:

  • Jackie Duddy (17 years old) was shot in the chest in the Rossville apartment block parking lot. Four witnesses later testified that he was unarmed and ran from the soldiers. Three of them saw a soldier deliberately aiming at him.
  • Patrick Doherty (31 years old) was shot from behind while trying to crawl to safety on the Rossville condominium forecourt. Seconds before he died, he was photographed by French photographer Gilles Peress . The photographs show that he was unarmed.
  • Bernard McGuigan (41 years old) was shot in the back of the head while trying to help Patrick Doherty. He can also be seen in Peress' pictures. He waved a white handkerchief to show the soldiers that he had peaceful intentions.
  • Hugh Gilmour (aged 17) was shot in the chest while running from soldiers on Rossville Street. He was photographed seconds after he was hit. Witnesses said he was unarmed.
  • Kevin McElhinney (17 years old) was shot from behind while trying to get to the front entrance of the Rossville apartment block. Two witnesses testified that he was unarmed.
  • Michael Kelly (17 years old) was standing near the rubble barricade outside the Rossville apartment block when he was shot in the stomach. He was unarmed but may have been standing next to someone who was using a gun.
  • John Young (17 years old) was shot in the head while standing near the rubble barricade outside the Rossville apartment block. Two witnesses testified that he was unarmed.
  • William Nash (19 years old) was standing near the barricade when he was shot in the chest. Witnesses said he was unarmed and trying to help others when he was shot.
  • Michael McDaid (20 years old) was shot in the face as he walked away from the soldiers. The trajectory of the bullet that struck him suggests that he was shot by soldiers stationed on the Derry Walls.
  • James Wray (22 years old) was initially only wounded and then shot at close range while lying on the ground. Eyewitnesses said he was unable to move his legs when he was shot.
  • Gerald McKinney (34 years old) was shot while trying to escape. The bullet pierced his body and also killed Gerald Donaghey running in front of him.
  • Gerald Donaghey (17 years old) was hit in the stomach while trying to get to safety between Glenfada Park and Abbey Park. He was taken to a nearby house where a doctor examined him. His pockets were turned inside out in an attempt to identify him. Neither the soldier who first examined him nor the British army doctor who confirmed his death noticed anything unusual about him. A later police photo of his body showed nail bombs in his pockets. Gerald Donaghy was a member of the IRA-affiliated Fianna Éireann, a republican youth movement.
  • William McKinney (27 years old, not related to Gerald McKinney) was shot in the back while trying to help Gerald McKinney.

John Johnston (59 years old) is counted among the victims of that day by some sources. He was shot on William Street 15 minutes before the protesters opened fire. Johnston died of a brain tumor four months later.

reception in art

A number of songs commemorated the event, including Irish rock group U2 's Sunday Bloody Sunday , Phil Coulter 's The Town I Loved So Well , John Lennon 's The Luck of the Irish and Sunday Bloody Sunday , Paul 's Give Ireland back to the Irish McCartney , Irish group Cruachan 's Bloody Sunday .

To this day, numerous murals in the Catholic districts of Belfast and Derry commemorate the event and the victims. In part, they are placed in a larger context of Irish resistance to British rule.

Paul Greengrass (director and screenwriter) adapted the events of January 30, 1972 into the semi-documentary feature film Bloody Sunday , which won the 2002 Golden Bear .

Margo Harkin, who was present at the demonstrations on January 30, 1972 in Derry, published the documentary "Bloody Sunday" in 2006, which deals with the course of events, but above all with the investigation led by Lord Saville and the handling of the then victims and bereaved.

In February 2010, the Derry artists Tom Kelly, William Kelly and Kevin Hasson, who work under the name "Bogside Artists", were awarded the Joseph Beuys/Demarco European Art Foundation Prize. Richard Demarco, founder of the foundation, said that the Bogside Artists worked in the spirit of the founder and namesake of the prize, Joseph Beuys , and continued his practice of understanding art as healing.

literature

  • Graham Dawson: Trauma, Place, and the Politics of Memory. Bloody Sunday, Derry, 1972-2004. In: History Workshop Journal. Vol. 59, 2005, ISSN  1363-3554 , pp. 151-178.
  • Patrick Hayes and Jim Campbell: Bloody Sunday. Trauma, Pain and Politics . Pluto Press, London et al. 2005, ISBN 0-7453-1854-1 .
  • Peter Pringle, Philip Jacobson: Those Are Real Bullets, Aren't They? Bloody Sunday, Derry, 30 January 1972. Forth Estate, London 2000, ISBN 1-84115-290-0 .
  • Dermot PJ Walsh, Bloody Sunday and the Rule of Law in Northern Ireland. Macmillan et al., London et al. 2000, ISBN 0-333-72288-4 .

web links

Commons : Bloody Sunday (Northern Ireland 1972)  - Collection of images, video and audio files

itemizations

  1. ↑ "Bloody Sunday" report submitted: Cameron apologizes , ntv, June 15, 2010
  2. ↑ Government to pay compensation to Bloody Sunday families ; BBC News, September 22, 2011
  3. ↑ Mirror Online: Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland: Suspect arrested after 43 years , 10 November 2015
  4. ↑ Bloody Sunday: Soldier F faces murder charges. BBC News 14 March 2019, accessed 14 March 2019 (English).
  5. ↑ Civil Rights Movement: The Dead. In: Massacre at Derry. Fionnuala McKenna, January 14, 2012, accessed January 31, 2012 (English).
  6. ↑ a b Bloody Sunday: The victims. BBC News 14 March 2019, accessed 14 March 2019 (English).
  7. ↑ The Rt Hon The Lord Saville of Newdigate (Chairman), The Hon Willian Hoyt OC, The Hon John Toohey AC: The shooting of Damien Donaghey and John Johnston. In: The Bloody Sunday Inquiry Report (Volume 02 – Chapter 18) – par. 18.7. Archived from the original on June 22, 2010 ; Retrieved June 26, 2010 (English).
  8. ↑ Jürgen Schneider: Without charge ; Junge Welt, January 29, 2010, page 12; online at irish-solidarity.net , accessed 22 September 2011