Bloody Sunday - a timeline of events from 1972 to the present day
Sunday, January 30th, 1972
2.50pm: A demonstration in Derry protesting against internment without trial, organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, set off almost an hour late from Bishop's Field in the Creggan estate and made its way towards Guildhall Square. The numbers who took part in the civil rights march, which was banned by the Stormont Parliament of the time, are disputed, and different reports have put the figure at between 5,000 and 20,000 people.
3.25pm: The march turned onto Westland Street before making its way to William Street.
3.40pm: The main body of the march were led onto Rossville Street towards Free Derry Corner. However, a smaller group of protesters continued down William Street where a British army barricade had been set up in an attempt to seal off the approaches to Guildhall Square. The protesters confronted the soldiers at the barricades throwing stones and other missiles. The soldiers responded with rubber bullets, a water cannon and CS gas, forcing many of the protesters to take refuge in the Bogside.
4.10pm: What happened next is unclear. The British paratroopers deployed to disperse the rioters make arrests. The army claimed the soldiers came under attack from gunfire and nail bombs from the area of the Rossville and Glenfadda flats, but this is disputed. The paratroopers made their way down Rossville Street into the Bogside in armoured vehicles before advancing on foot. The soldiers of the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment opened fire in the Rossville flats area. The army maintained it opened fire only after they had been fired on by snipers and that it only shot at gunmen and bombers, but this was disputed by witnesses including journalists who said the paratroopers opened fire first, shooting indiscriminately into the large crowd. There was mass hysteria as the crowds tried to flee the gunfire.
4.40pm: Approximately 25 minutes after it began, the shooting ended. A total of 13 civil rights marchers had been shot dead while at least 13 others were wounded.
Stormont prime minister Brian Faulkner said in a statement that evening that the IRA and the civil rights march organisers were entirely to blame for the carnage. “Those who organised this march must bear a terrible responsibility for having urged people to lawlessness and for having provided the IRA with the opportunity of once again bringing death to our streets,” he said.
January 31st, 1972
In Northern Ireland, Catholics from all walks of life demonstrated by striking at public institutions and closing shops, schools and other places of work. In Derry teachers called a three-day strike, and shops, pubs and factories closed.
Seven Derry priests held a press conference, accusing the colonel of the parachute movement of “wilful murder” while the relatives of the dead held a joint press conference.
Widespread protests took place both north and south of the Border in protest of the Bloody Sunday. Violent scenes took place at a protest outside the British embassy in Merrion Square, Dublin, when bombs, bricks and stones were thrown, and most of the embassy windows were broken although 200 gardaí thwarted an attempt to burn down the embassy. A further 10,000 people demonstrated in Cork.
In Dublin, the Cabinet met in emergency session, and the Irish ambassador in London, Dr Donal O’Sullivan, was recalled. Taoiseach Jack Lynch called for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Derry and Catholic ghettos; the end of internment without trial; and a declaration that Britain to achieve a final settlement of the Irish question. In a national broadcast he ordered a national day of mourning.
In the House of Commons in London, a judicial inquiry was announced. Independent MP for Mid Ulster, Bernadette Devlin crossed the floor of the House and struck British home secretary Reginald Maudling several times in the face, calling him a “murdering hypocrite” and claimed that he was lying to the house when he said there would be an independent inquiry into the events of January 30th.
February 1st, 1972
British prime minister Edward Heath announced that a public inquiry would be carried out by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Widgery.
Disturbances and strikes continued in various locations in Northern Ireland while the general strike in Derry intensified.
A British soldier was shot dead in Belfast and five people were injured.
In the Republic, a bomb destroyed the Royal Liver offices in Dún Laoghaire, while the docks office in Waterford was blown up. Thousands continued to protest outside the British embassy in Dublin while attacks took place on British offices based in Ireland.
In Britain, meetings and protest marches took place in several cities, while a riot broke out at an anti-internment protest in Oxford.
In New York, then-minister for foreign affairs Edward Hillery said “Britain is provoking a war against a nation which, to a large extent, is unarmed.”
February 2nd, 1972
The funerals of 12 of the 13 victims of Bloody Sunday took place - 11 in Derry and one in Donegal. Around 20,000 people attended the funerals including five Irish government ministers. In the Republic, a national day of mourning was observed. Many businesses closed and special services and masses were held in honour of the dead. Thousands attended protests and Masses throughout the country.
The British embassy in Dublin was burned down and 71 people were injured in baton attacks when tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Dublin in what was described as the biggest demonstration in a generation.
In Britain 2,000 people marched through London against the Derry killings in a march organised by the Anti Internment League, while a further 200 people demonstrated in Edinburgh.
February 3rd, 1972
The 13th victim, 27-year-old William McKinney was buried in Derry. A total of 550 extra British army troops were sent to the North as Britain’s policy on Ireland hardened after the attack on the embassy in Dublin. Irish businesses in London, including newspaper offices, receive numerous bomb threats. Demonstrators attempt to burn down the British
Rail offices in Cork.
February 5th, 1972
A march of around 8,000 people in London turned violent when police stopped demonstrators from laying 13 mock coffins at the door of Downing Street while further protests took place in Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh. In
Rome three bombs were thrown at the British embassy but caused no damage, while a fourth damaged the door of a nearby British private school.
February 6th, 1972
More than 50,000 people defied the Stormont-ordered ban on parades to take part in a mass demonstration in Newry that was organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. There was no confrontation. Marches took place in various locations in the Republic to coincide with the demonstration.
Over 5,000 people marched in Sydney, Australia while a similar protest took place in Melbourne.
February 8th, 1972
Britain turned down an offer by UN secretary general Dr Kurt Waldheim to intervene between the Irish and British governments on the situation in Northern Ireland.
April 18th, 1972
The Widgery report was published. In it Lord Widgery concluded that shots had been fired at the soldiers before they started the firing that led to the casualties; that for the most part the soldiers acted as they did because they thought their standing orders required it; and that although there was no proof that any of the deceased had been shot whilst handling a firearm or bomb, there was a strong suspicion that some had been firing weapons or handling bombs in the course of the afternoon.
June 16th, 1972
John Johnston, widely considered as the 14th victim of Bloody Sunday, died. Mr Johnston was shot twice on January 30th, 1972, and died in June that year.
1987
A group of relatives, along with a number of Sinn Féin members and other political activists, formed the Bloody Sunday Initiative, later the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign (BSJC), specifically to push for a second inquiry.
1992
The new group took over the organisation of the annual commemorative march, advancing three demands: repudiation of Widgery and the institution of a new inquiry; formal acknowledgement of the innocence of the victims; and the prosecution of the soldiers responsible.
1995
Taoiseach John Bruton designated a civil servant specifically to liaise with the Bloody Sunday families.
January 30th, 1997
On the 25th anniversary of Bloody Sunday the British prime minister, John Major, said there was "no need" for a new investigation into the killings of the 14 civilians unless fresh evidence was discovered.
1997
Documents unearthed by the director of British Irish Rights Watch, Jane Winter, and Belfast solicitor Patricia Coyle form the basis of a report by Prof Dermot Walsh. The documents were to form basis of a report by Prof Dermot Walsh in 1997, The Bloody Sunday Tribunal of Inquiry: A Resounding Defeat for Truth, Justice and the Rule of Law
June 1997
Bertie Ahern presented the newly elected government of Tony Blair with a 178-page assessment of the new material, drawing heavily on Prof Walsh’s analysis. A preface for the first time asserted the demand for a new inquiry as an Irish government position.
January 29th, 1998
Following years of pressure from victims’ families and politicians in the North and in the Republic, British prime minister Tony Blair announced a fresh inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday. In a statement to MPs in the House of Commons the day before the 26th anniversary of the tragedy he announced the inquiry would be chaired by Lord Saville.
In his speech to the house Mr Blair said that Lord Widgery’s report, which was produced within 11 weeks, was not able to consider all the evidence that might have been available, did not receive any evidence from the wounded who were still in hospital, and did not consider individually substantial numbers of witness accounts provided to his inquiry in the early part of March 1972. He said new witness accounts, new ballistic material, and new medical evidence had come to light about the events of the day.
April 3rd, 1998
Lord Saville delivered his opening statement in the Guildhall, seven days before the Belfast Agreement.
April 10th 1998
The Good Friday Agreement is signed and endorsed by the British and Irish governments and endorsed by most Northern Ireland political parties.
October 14th, 1999
The Bloody Sunday inquiry granted anonymity to British soldiers. Under a series of rulings the inquiry said it had no choice but to protect the identities of firing and non-firing soldiers following a British Court of Appeal ruling.
March 27th, 2000
Oral hearings began in Derry’s Guildhall
May 2nd, 2001
Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness confirmed publicly for the first time he was the IRA's second in command in Derry on Bloody Sunday and that he had given a statement to the Bloody Sunday tribunal saying that the IRA did not engage with the British army on Bloody Sunday and that there were no IRA units in the area of the march.
May 15th, 2001
Former Westminster MP, Bernadette Devlin told the inquiry the British government, military and sections of the media were involved in a murder cover-up on Bloody Sunday.
February 3rd, 2002
Up to 30,000 people took part in the 30th Bloody Sunday anniversary commemoration in Derry.
March 14th, 2002
Ulster Unionist peer Lord Kilclooney (John Taylor) told the inquiry that he believed in 1972, and still believed, that 13 gunmen were killed by the British army on Bloody Sunday.
September 2002 to October 2003
Hearing moved to London to take military and other evidence.
January 14th, 2003
Former British prime minister Sir Edward Heath gave evidence to the Saville inquiry. He said it was "absurd to suggest that her majesty's government intended or was prepared to risk the events which occurred". He also staunchly denied he had influenced the 1972 Widgery report into the 1972 killings.
November 22nd and 23rd, 2004
Counsel to the inquiry Christopher Clarke made his closing speech.
November 24th, 2004
The Bloody Sunday inquiry drew to a close having interviewed and received statements from about 2,500 people, with 922 of these called to give oral evidence at the tribunal, which sat for 434 days over a five-year period. At the time the inquiry concluded it was expected to issue a report in summer 2005.
January 20th 2005
Martin Doherty (54) became the first person to be sent to jail as a result of the Bloody Sunday killings. Doherty started a three-month sentence for being in contempt after he refused to give evidence to the inquiry.
November 20th 2008
Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward says the inquiry has cost £185 million so far.
March 22nd, 2010
After 12 years and at a cost of £200 million, the Bloody Sunday inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville, was completed.
March 24th, 2010
The report is handed to lawyers for the British Government to ensure it does not jeopardise national security.
June 11th, 2010
Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness said leaks from the report that were published were "heaping anguish upon anguish" upon the families.
June 15th 2010
Following numerous delays, Lord Saville’s report into the 1972 British army shootings is published.