Remembering the martyrs of Bloody Sunday.

It is the 40-year anniversary of the Bloody Sunday massacre carried out by British troops.

Thirtieth of January 1972: up to 15,000 protesters march through the streets of Derry, Northern Ireland. They were there to protest against the internment, or imprisonment without trial, of anyone considered to have Republican loyalties.

They marched through the streets of Derry to change their society for the better. By nightfall 13 of them would be dead. Another would die of his wounds a few months later. Many more were injured.

Homes were raided, innocents arrested. Bullet holes in the sides of houses would reveal the positions where British Paratrooper snipers had taken aim at students, civilians, children. As night fell, there was still blood on the streets of Derry. This was “Bloody Sunday”.

 

The martyrs of Bloody Sunday.



Patrick (Paddy) Doherty,31 years old.



Gerald Donaghey,17 years old.



John (Jackie) Duddy,17 yers old.



Hugh Gilmour,17 years old.

 

Michael Kelly,17 years old.



Michael McDaid,20 years old.



Kevin McElhinney,17 years old.



Bernard McGuigan,41 yers old.

 

Gerard McKinney,35 years old.



William McKinney,27 years old.



William Nash,19 years old.



James Wray,22 yers old.

 

John Young,17 years old.



John Johnston,59 years old.

 

Thanks for remembering. May the Irish martyrs rest in peace. May Eire be whole again. Good fortune to the people of Russia.

 

ALL members please note the forum rules, and this one in particular (with added bold/size for emphasis):

thank you,
Cenydd
Site Moderator

 

Indeed, sad day in Irish history. Thankfully my family lives predominantly in the southwest if Ireland, though we go as far north as Dublin [which isn't very far north].

 

I tend to think more about the 1000s of innocent victims killed by IRA terrorism than I do about the shootings on Bloddy Sunday. Principly because there were many many more of those and the IRA terrorists performed their deeds over a longer period of time.

I do remember the victory at Loughgall when the East Tyrone Brigade were wiped out - now that is something worth remembering! And just think on, of how many innocent lives were saved by the removal of those boyz.....

 

Other than to say that Gerry Adams may have created the scenario with his previously bloody murderous anti-British actions?

No!

 

Or indeed Martin McGuinness as he was armed and on duty that day.

 

Thousands? More like 630 civilians (which I obviously strongly disagree with regardless of the number).

The IRA conducted an armed campaign, primarily in Northern Ireland but also in England and mainland Europe, over the course of which it was responsible for the deaths of approximately 1,800 people. The dead included around 1,100 members of the British security forces, and about 630 civilians.[9][10] The IRA itself lost 275–300 members,[11] of an estimated 10,000 total over the thirty-year period.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army

And when was the Tyrone Brigade wiped out? You mean the ambush of 87' when they were going to bomb an unmanned RUC base? What do you have against the Tyrone Brigade, they never targeted civilians purposely?

 

When thinking of the victims of the troubles both of the IRA and of the UVF it is important to remember that while the IRA and its "campaigns" in the north predated Bloody Sunday the events of Bloody Sunday played a huge role in exacerbating the situation.

The shooting dead of civil rights campaigners did much to unify the catholic and nationalist population of NI behind the IRA, convincing many that the British government and army had no intention of addressing the legitimate grievances of the catholic minority. That the British government would enforce the status quo and put down further attempts to raise awareness of official discrimination.

If the civil rights marchers had not been shot dead by the british army, if the British government had instead listened to their grievances and prevented the protestant majority from continuing to enforce political, social and economic discrimination against Catholics, the IRA could have been a much smaller and much less influential group and the total death toll much of it from after Bloody Sunday could have been much lower.

 

IMO some of the most moving pictures of the day.

 

Indeed, especially the last one.

 

I dislike applying the term "martyr" to all those who died at the hands of the British army, should we call the victims of IRA bombings campaigns martyrs?

 

If they're Orangemen they died in combat fighting for the British Empire.

 

My maternal ancestors were from Donegal. They ended up fleeing to North America.

 

But those who died on Bloody Sunday did not die in combat. Nor were they opposing the by then defunct "British Empire" they were opposing internment.

Indeed that they were combatants was one of the calumnies thrown at the victims by the British Government. To liken them to those who were involved in the armed struggles seems to me to insult them by perpetuating the once commonly held misapprehension that they were instigators and participants in violence of Bloody Sunday

 

Bloody Sunday has shown the world that the British Government's forces were far from neutral in Northern Ireland's "troubles" - such a pity people had to die for that.

 

It's hard to maintain 'neutrality' when being shot at. The paras involved on the day say they were fired upon first.

Maybe they were, maybe they weren't. I don't know. I wasn't there.

 

No they weren't. One shot was fired by one man after they had already shot at least two marchers.

They fired on a civil rights march and they were protected by the British government for more than twenty years.

They shot dead 13 innocent civilians. Who were British Citizens.

It would never have happened on the mainland It would never have happened to Unionists.

Did you know that the Catholic community were overjoyed when British troops first began to patrol the streets?

They thought they would protect them.

They thought they would prevent the abuses of the B specials and the UVF.

They didn't.

They fired on a peaceful protest.

Your defense of that is sickening.

 

Yes, I did know that the Catholic community were pleased to see British troops patrol the streets. The rest is in dispute.

 

No its really not.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/public-inquiries-inquests-bsi.htm

Read and tell me how any of it is in dispute.

Stop defending the actions of those British paratroopers They fired on an unarmed non violent crowed.

I sympathies with the nationalists.

I do not excuse the behavior of the IRA with "Well maybe they did may be they didn't" or " I don't know I wasn't there I can't judge" or "It is difficult to obey the law and respect the state when your family is being interned".

The IRA's violence was wrong. Full Stop. The End.

And that is exactly what you are doing. Excusing the murder of British citizens by their army.

 

Yes the East Tyrone Brigade. Terrorist murderers is what I have against them.

May 8th 1987, Loughall - a good day for the Brits against the terrorists, that would kill and destroy all that is good and decent.