‘In January 1972, a peaceful civil rights march in Northern Ireland ended in bloodshed. Troops from Britain's 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment opened fire on marchers, leaving 13 dead and 15 wounded. Seven of those killed were teenage boys. The day became known as 'Bloody Sunday'.

Anger

 The main feeling I got from reading ‘On Bloody Sunday: A New History Of The Day And Its Aftermath – By The People Who Were There’ was anger. So much so that I could only read short passages at a time before I had to leave the book down. Go for walk, make a cup of tea, anything until I calmed down and was able to start again. It’s only natural that this was my reaction, as what is recounted in these pages couldn’t help but generate any other emotion. Of course sadness is in there too – sadness for the families, for those who didn’t live to hear the Saville report. But so much anger.

 Julieann Campbell, the author of ‘On bloody Sunday’’ is well placed to tell this story as her Uncle, Jackie Duddy, just 17 years old, was the first to be killed that day. She has been a  leading campaigner for truth and justice for the Bloody Sunday families. 

Oral Testimonies

 A large part of this book consists of oral testimonies, that move between survivors, relatives of those who died and witnesses. It also includes interviews with people who have since died and even uses transcripts of radio messages from the British Army on the day. Summarys of some documents, such as the Widgery report and the second Bloody Sunday tribunal in 2010 as well as headlines and editorials from Newspapers of the time, are also included.

 Julieann Campbell does such a good job of setting the context of the marches, the discrimination and the gerrymandering, the unionist dominated council and government. People were peacefully marching for their basic human rights, repeatedly denied to them.

 The strength of ‘On Bloody Sunday’ is in the way the first-hand accounts of the day are portrayed. To begin with, you realise with horror that ‘The Paras’ were intent on murder before the march had started.

You get a sense of being in the crowd, with the marchers. It’s the innocence of it, the craic people were having, the joking, the sheer innocence of it. Teenagers thinking about teenage things.

When the shootings begin and the panic spreads, it’s truly terrifying. Some things stuck in my head. The man who wonders why there are wasps buzzing over his head when it’s January, highlighting the incredulity that these could be live bullets. People running and falling as they get shot. Others crawling to bodies to help, putting their own lives in danger and getting shot as well. The young woman screaming as a man is shot in the head beside her. It’s horrific.

Aftermath

 The aftermath is devastating, the grief of the familiies compounded by the blackening of their names by the British. As an Irishman, the weasel words of successive British government come as  no surprise to me. I know the history of their actions in Ireland, especially in the north. The families show such resilience and bravery, especially after the lies and insults contained in the Widgery report.  The author really gets across the sense of injustice and the shared trauma felt by the families and the people of Derry. The dignity that these  people showed is incredible.

 Iin 2010, some thirty years after the massacre, the Saville enquiry finally exonerates the dead.  When the British govt finally admits the truth, something the people of Derry always knew, that the victims were innocent. Incredibly, they actually apologise, which must be a first for them.

The accounts here really give you a sense of the elation as well as the sadness of relatives whose parents and family members were longer around to see the names of their loved ones cleared.

But yet, not one of those who fired at the innocents that day has ever seen the inside of a cell.

 I had of course heard of Bloody Sunday before this book, and my father and uncle had told me about Civil Rights marches they attended during the sixties. This book, with it’s details and personal accounts of the day, some previously unpublished, put me right in the middle of the events. This is a powerful book. 

 Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the Advanced Reader Copy of ‘On Bloody Sunday’ in exchange for an honest review.

384 pages

January 18, 2022 by Monoray

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