Bloody Sunday (1972) - Background

Background

In the late 1960s discrimination against the Catholic minority in electoral boundaries, voting rights, and the allocation of public housing led organisations such as Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) to mount a non-violent campaign for change. Following attacks on civil rights marchers by Protestant loyalists, as well as members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), anger and violence mounted. In 1969 the Battle of the Bogside broke out in the aftermath of disturbances following an Apprentice Boys of Derry march. The residents of the nationalist Bogside erected barricades around the area to resist police incursions, and, after three days of rioting when the RUC had proved unable to restore order, the government of Northern Ireland requested the deployment of the British Army.

While initially welcomed by the Catholics as a neutral force compared to the RUC, relations between the nationalists and the Army soon deteriorated. On 8 July 1971 two rioters, Seamus Cusack and Desmond Beattie, were shot dead in the Bogside by soldiers in disputed circumstances. Soldiers claimed the pair were armed, which was denied by local people, and moderate nationalists including John Hume and Gerry Fitt walked out of the Parliament of Northern Ireland in protest. A British Army memorandum states that as a result of this the situation "changed overnight", with the Provisional IRA's campaign in the city beginning at that time after previously being regarded as "quiescent".

In response to escalating levels of violence across Northern Ireland, internment without trial was introduced on 9 August 1971. In a quid pro quo gesture to nationalists, all marches and parades were banned, including the flashpoint march by the Apprentice Boys of Derry which was due to take place on 12 August. There was disorder across Northern Ireland following the introduction of internment, with 21 people being killed in three days of rioting. On 10 August Bombardier Paul Challenor became the first soldier to be killed by the Provisional IRA in Derry, when he was shot by a sniper on the Creggan estate. A further six soldiers had been killed in Derry by mid-December 1971. 1,932 rounds were fired at the British Army, who also faced 211 explosions and 180 nail bombs and who fired 364 rounds in return.

Provisional IRA activity also increased across Northern Ireland with thirty British soldiers being killed in the remaining months of 1971, in contrast to the ten soldiers killed during the pre-internment period of the year. Both the Official IRA and Provisional IRA had established "no-go" areas for the British Army and RUC in Derry through the use of barricades. By the end of 1971, 29 barricades were in place to prevent access to what was known as Free Derry, 16 of them impassable even to the British Army's one-ton armoured vehicles. IRA members openly mounted roadblocks in front of the media, and daily clashes took place between nationalist youths and the British Army at a spot known as "aggro corner". Due to rioting and damage to shops caused by incendiary devices, an estimated total of £4 million worth of damage had been done to local businesses.

In January 1972 the NICRA intended, despite the ban, to organise a march in Derry to protest against internment. The authorities who knew of the proposed march decided to allow it to proceed in the nationalist areas of the city, but to stop it from reaching Guildhall Square, as planned by the organizers. Major General Robert Ford, then Commander of Land Forces in Northern Ireland, ordered that 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment (1 PARA) should travel to Derry to be used to arrest possible rioters during the march. 1 PARA arrived in Derry on the morning of Sunday 30 January 1972 and took up positions in the city.