Bloody sunday (1972)

Bloody Sunday sometimes called Bogside Massacre, it was called Bogside Massacre because there was an accident in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, in which 26 civil-rights protesters and bystanders were shot by soldiers of the British Army. Thriteen males, seven of whom were teenagers, died immediately or soon after, while the death of another man four and a half months later was attributed to the injuries he received on that day. Two protesters was also injured when they run down by army vehicles.

Two investigations have been held by the British Government. The Widgery Tribunal, held in the immediate aftermath of the event, largely cleared the soldiers and British authorities of blame Widgery described the soldiers shooting as bordering on the reckless but was widely criticized as a whitewash. The Saville Inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, was establish in 1998 to reinvestigate the events.

The Provisional Irish Republican Army’s (IRA) campaign against the partition  of Ireland had begun in the two years prior to Bloody Sunday, but public perceptions of the day boosted the status of, and recruitment into, the organization enormously. Bloody Sunday remains among the most significant events in the Troubles of the Northern Ireland, chiefly because those who died were shot by British army rather than paramilitaries, in full view of the public and the press.