Loyalist fears:
The Catholics in Northern Ireland had a lot of reasons to make them feel displeased. The Protestants made their lives very miserable, mainly I think because they felt very apprehensive of them. They were afraid that in a United Ireland Catholics would outvote them and they would lose control over the education of their children.
However, as time went on the Catholics started to realise that there were also some gains from living in Northern Ireland, for example:
- The welfare State. This supplied lots of benefits and meant that
all medical treatment and doctors visits were free. In southern Ireland these had to be paid for.
- The growth of industry after the Second World War. This meant
that there were better job chances in Northern Ireland – especially compared with Southern Ireland which was still mainly agricultural and had few industries.
The events of Bloody Sunday:
On Sunday the 30th January, at a time in the afternoon, a crowd of Civil Rights marchers gathered in Derry. Their intentions were to march to the Guildhall to protest about internment, which had been reintroduced six months earlier. After introducing internment the Unionist Government had banned all marches, so this march was, in fact, against the law. Instead of risking a riot by trying to stop it, the army had decided that the march should be allowed to go ahead. However, they did block the path to the Guildhall with barriers. They wanted to enclose the march in the Bogside.
Families, including women and children joined the crowd. There was a festival atmosphere helped by the fact that the IRA had promised that they would not interfere or shoot at the soldiers.
The march started just before 3pm, to begin with it was controlled and good-humoured with the crowd singing songs such as; “We shall overcome.” As they came near the barricades, some youngsters decided to take the opportunity to provoke the soldiers and even throw stones at them! This was a common incident in the Bogside but on this day they found themselves facing a different kind of soldier… The No.1 Paras had been specially brought in from Belfast on the chance the march got out of hand. This was a crack regiment, specialists in fierce attacks on enemy targets, not crowd control. They had arrived the day before and many of them were disgusted at the way in which the IRA controlled “Free Derry” and had made it a no-go area for British troops. They also disliked the fact that the army put up with the stone throwing and abuse. As their commanding officer, Lt Col Derek Wilford said, “we thought it was a peculiar way for the soldiers to behave…My soldiers were never going to act like Aunt Sallies.”
The soldiers were anxious. Only 48 hours earlier there had been a shoot-out between the Army and the terrorists. In the pre-march briefing they had been warned that the IRA was likely to take advantage of the march. They were told to expect snipers, petrol bombers and nail bombers. They were not told about the IRA’s “no shooting” promise.
At 3.55pm one high-velocity shot rang out. The person that fired the shot is not known. No one was hit but it had a big effect on the Paras. Moments later General Robert Ford urged his forces into action saying: “Go on, No. 1 Para! Go and get them!” Two further shots were heard. These were most likely warning shots fired by soldiers, but on hearing them the Paras opened fire, or as the platoon sergeant recalled, “We identified targets and started dropping them.” Twenty minutes later, thirteen people lay dead and fourteen others were seriously injured. One of the injured died shortly after.
From the fourteen deaths, some were classed as suspicious, as they didn’t attack the Paras although the Paras claim they did. A few examples are:
-
Gerald Donaghy – He was aged only seventeen and was shot
in the abdomen in Glenfada Park. Nail bombs had also been found planted in his pockets.
Donaghy was the only person shot that was linked to the IRA. He was a member of their youth wing.
-
Michael McDaid – Aged 20. The bodies of Young, Nash and
McDaid were collected in an army vehicle. Some eye witnesses say McDaid was still alive at this time.
If he was alive then how come he was found dead? If the eye witnesses were correct, this would be a cause for great suspicion.
-
Bernard McGuigan – Aged 41. He heard Patrick Doherty’s cries
for help and waving a white handkerchief, moved towards him. He was shot in the head.
This is a very suspicious death because he was waving a symbol that represents surrender, and he was making no attempt to cause anyone harm. How did the Paras manage to come to the conclusion that McGuigan was a danger to them and was trying to attack them?
After Bloody Sunday:
Straight away after Bloody Sunday the government had announced an investigation into what happened. In April 1972 the Widgery Report was published. The content of the Report made people feel like it was a cover-up… “There was no general breakdown in Army discipline… soldiers who identified gunmen fired upon them in accordance with the standing orders in the Yellow Card…” Resentment and anger of lots of people increased.
There is still acerbity about Bloody Sunday. Those close to the dead feel that there are too many unanswered questions. They hate the way the Widgery Report accused their loved ones as guilty. In 1992 they formed a group to pressurise for a new investigation. New evidence was discovered that made it seem unlikely that three of the dead had been handling weapons, which was the theory. Radio messages also seemed to imply that some soldiers had been shooting from the Derry Walls.
The day the funerals took place for those killed on Bloody Sunday, angry crowds burned down the British Embassy in Dublin. There was also violence by different people.
On February 23rd a bomb blew up at the Officers’ Mess of the 16th Parachute Bridgade at Aldershot, killing seven people.
In July 1972 “Bloody Friday” took place. Over twenty bombs exploded in Belfast. Nine people died, seventy-seven women and girls and fifty-three men and boys were injured – a lot of them very seriously. This led to Operation Motorman on July 31st… the army made a strong presence in all trouble spots, including “Free Derry”.
IRA violence sparked off retaliation. Unionist terrorist groups started bombings and shootings too. In the 3 years prior to Bloody Sunday 210 were killed in troubles. In the 11 months after Bloody Sunday 445 people lost their lives.
Many attempts were made to try and resolve the problems in Ireland. In 1974 it was suggested that Catholics and Protestants should share power in Northern Ireland. This failed as the Protestants objected to the number of seats the Catholics were given and refused to co-operate. In 1985 the Anglo-Irish Agreement tried to involve Southern Ireland in tackling the problem, however, this also dissatisfied the Protestants – they saw no reason why the South should get involved. In 1993 the Downing Street agreement was made and London and Dublin started to work closer together. On Good Friday 1998, Tony Blair announced a new settlement that was accepted by all the major groups. The plan is to create a new assembly that will take over the running of some government departments like agriculture and education. They will also have to set up a council of ministers from North and South and attempt to co-operate to resolve the problems.
The real IRA does not accept this agreement. In August 1998, they planted a car-bomb in Omagh and twenty-nine people were killed. Unionists have also started to give up on this agreement.
The Saville Inquiry:
After a campaign by families of those killed and injured, the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, announced a fresh inquiry into Bloody Sunday in January 1998, supervised by Lord Saville. He said much new material had come to light. That material included new eyewitness accounts, new interpretation of ballistic material and new medical evidence. The weight of new material available was such that the events of 30th January 1972 required re-examination. Mr Blair said: "Let me make it clear that the aim of the inquiry is not to accuse individuals or institutions, or to invite fresh recriminations, but to establish the truth about what happened on that day, so far as that can be achieved at 26 years' distance.”
The families say they want to clear the names of their loved ones and remove any implication that they were guilty of any crime. Of the soldiers who have spoken about Bloody Sunday, many say they genuinely believed that they were under attack from "gunmen and nail-bombers".
Many people in Derry were angry that a British judge had been appointed to investigate the actions of the British Army. Some advised that the Inquiry should be boycotted but the majority of people decided to attend. As a result the people of Derry co-operated with the Inquiry but they were amazed at the results of the investigation.
The news of the Saville Inquiry would obviously please republicans. Lord Saville is currently re-examining evidence, interviewing those even today, in search of new valuable evidence and hearing stories of those people ignored by Lord Widgery.
The Inquiry interviewed and received statements from around 1,800 people. Nine hundred and nineteen of these were called to give evidence.
The number of witnesses in each category called to give evidence was as follows:
- Civilian - 504
- Experts and Forensic Scientists -9
- Media (including photographers) - 49
- Military - 245
- Paramilitary or Former Paramilitary - 33
- Politician and Civil Servant (including intelligence officers) - 39
- Priest - 7
- RUC – 33
Normally, questions were put to witnesses by Counsel to the Inquiry. When appropriate, subject to the discretion of the Tribunal, questions could be put by Counsel for the interested parties. The Tribunal also questioned some witnesses.
In some instances witnesses were ‘screened’ while giving their evidence. This meant that only the Tribunal, counsel and other legal representatives could see them. Members of the public and media could hear the evidence being given but could not see the witness while this was done.
I hope that the Saville Inquiry will work, because in the past both sides were arguing, shooting and bombing each other. Now the South and the North are also beginning to talk, which is a good sign because it is all one country so they should get along. I think it will take a long time before the Catholics and Protestants trust each other, but the situation now is a lot better than it was at the time of Bloody Sunday, and hopefully the results of the Saville Inquiry will prove to be a step forward.
