Source B is also useful to see the attitude the British had towards the Irish after Bloody Sunday. The source is also a cartoon. It shows a poster for a made up film about the Irish. The source says “the ultimate in psychopathic horror”. This is describing the Irish and their actions. Also on the poster there are gravestones and underneath them the words “featuring the IRA, INLA, UDF, PFF, UDA, etc, etc.” These are all paramilitaries and the gravestones show that the paramilitaries intend to kill and are violent. This source also perceives the Irish as monsters. This English cartoon was written in 1982, which was ten years after Bloody Sunday happened. There was a lot of hostility towards the Irish at this time because after Bloody Sunday Parliament took over and ran Ireland. This was Direct Rule and it took over from Stormont. Paramilitaries such as the IRA started to focus their violence on Britain and there were many bombings by the IRA in England.
Source C is useful to someone if they wanted to know the attitude the Irish had towards the British Army before Bloody Sunday occurred. This source is an Irish cartoon and it shows a very intimidating British Army pointing their rifles at a defenseless Irishwoman. In the background there are some more soldiers putting up gallows as if they were going to hang the innocent looking woman. It is trying to show the harsh treatment of the British Army and that they victimized innocent people as well like the woman in the cartoon. The source shows that the Irish felt that the British Army treated them unfairly. The source was drawn in 1780 and shows the long-term feelings between the two countries. At this time the Irish did have strong feelings towards the British because of Oliver Cromwell.
The sources on the other hand do have their limitations. Source A is not useful to someone who wanted to know the short term causes of Bloody Sunday or if you wanted to know the short term attitudes of the British towards the Irish or the Irish towards the British. The source doesn’t show that the tension was very high just before the march because the march was first banned because NICRA knew there might be violence if it did go ahead. It also does not show that the march was about internment and that they wanted it to stop as innocent people were being thrown into prison because someone had a suspicion that they were connected with the IRA. It also has limitations because of what kind of source it is. With it being a cartoon you have to take into account its purpose and its audience. Cartoons are normally very extreme examples of an issue and in this case it could be an extreme attitude of how the British perceived the Irish at the time. The way in which the Irishman has been drawn in this cartoon has a purpose to maybe get the views of a group of people across in a newspaper and therefore the audience would be to a wide range of people mainly the richer half of the English population as it is a political matter between the two countries. Also because of when it was drawn, in 1882, you can’t really tell if this source has much significance to Bloody Sunday and what happened that day.
The limitations of source B also show also because of the date it was drawn in. Being drawn in 1982, ten years after Bloody Sunday occurred, it can’t really be useful to someone that wanted to know why Bloody Sunday happened and about the Civil Rights marches that took place leading up to it. There were Civil Rights marches in August 1968 from Coalisland to Dungannon, in October 1968 in Londonderry and one in January 1969 at Burntollet Bridge. These marches all added tension between the Protestants, Catholics, Police, paramilitaries and the British Army. This cartoon was probably drawn to worn people about the paramilitaries. This was because after Bloody Sunday organizations such as the IRA started to bomb places in England.
Source C also has limitations due to the date it was produced. With it being drawn in 1780 it is also not so useful to learn about the situation before and during Bloody Sunday. It shows that there were bad feelings towards the British Army in 1780 but not why the Army was sent to Northern Ireland just before the event. The Army was sent onto the streets of Belfast and Derry to stop clashes between Catholics and Protestants and to restore law and order in Northern Ireland. This was after the Burntollet Bridge march, which got out of hand and violent, and because the RUC could not control the march the Army were sent in.
Overall the sources are useful to someone that wanted to learn about the long-term attitudes towards the Irish and the British Army before and after Bloody Sunday took place. On the other hand they are not useful to someone that wanted to learn about the short term causes for what happened on Bloody Sunday and what the situations were between the different religions and the Army.
