The events that occurred in Derry on 30th January 1972 became known as 'Bloody Sunday'. Why have these events produced such different historical interpretations?

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The events that occurred in Derry on 30th January 1972 became known as ‘Bloody Sunday’.  Why have these events produced such different historical interpretations?

        The Bloody Sunday march was supposed to be a peaceful and non-violent protest.  But the events that resulted in the death of fourteen people meant that the outcome of the protest was different than of that which was expected.

        There are two main reasons which suggest why there are different interpretations:

Having access to different information.

Many people who were at Derry witnessed different accounts of what had occurred.  Many people had access to different types of information and different amounts.  Including people who may have been proceeding on different information based upon different experiences. As well as this the interpretations of people may have changed with the passage of time.  

        “I was one of more than a 1000 people lying flat on their faces as the shooting continued.  Pinned to the ground, it was impossible to tell who fired the first shots…”- this shows that even people who had been at Derry during the march had different experiences and therefore have different views of what had occurred.  

 Different perspectives arising from different political and cultural stand points.  

This would result in people portraying the events at Derry in different ways because of loyalty.   There are three major groups of people involved, each have a different explanation and opinion of what had occurred at the march.

Source A- Paras in Bloody Sunday Evidence Storm.  This source has been fabricated after the premature release of a new forensic report.  Although the report is not substantial it was enough for Catholic Nationalists to act upon.  The Nationalists can now suggest that now if none of the fourteen Catholics that died were carrying firearms the army has no justification for its attack and therefore there statement of acting in self defence is distortion of the facts.  However the army still proclaim their innocence and insist that this new ‘evidence’ is ‘rubbish’. This new information encourages people to accept this as what had occurred at Derry in 1972.  These new opinions and so called inquiries are having an affect on what the public are to believe.  But this new information doesn’t factually identify any culprits.   Therefore each group sticks with what it foundationally believed and even if new information is introduced they will continue to do so.  But this information may have an affect upon people who have no clear, underlining belief about what occurred at Derry.  They may understand this information to be factual where as it is only substantial and therefore influence them to change their interpretations regarding Bloody Sunday.

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        Source B – Bloody Sunday Revelations – This source in representing the same information as Source A but the information and the conclusion of this source is different.  As a contrast to Source A where the writer states that the information is only a partial extract and therefore not the full report.  Therefore if a person who had a neutral view upon the events of Bloody Sunday happened to have embarked upon this article then this would considerably change the readers view upon the events of Bloody Sunday.  This article provides information to state that the Nationalist view of what ...

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