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Essay / Bloody Sunday Massacre of 1972
On the afternoon of Sunday January 30, 1972, soldiers of the British Parachute Regiment, one of the fearsome British militia units fighting in the north of Ireland, attacked a civil rights march in the city of Derry, killing or fatally wounding fourteen civilians and injuring two dozen others in an event that the international press quickly dubbed the "Bloody Sunday Massacre". This same group of soldiers had carried out a series of similar murders a few months earlier in Belfast, killing eleven people in cold blood, including a local Catholic priest, during a two-day reign of terror known as the Ballymurphy Massacre" of August 1971. by their officers and British politicians for their work in the previous massacre, much the same was expected of them in the western city of Derry and, of course, they responded to these expectations. However, as in Belfast, the Parachute Regiment's war crimes simply served to increase local support for armed resistance to the continued British presence, particularly the "Say No to Plagiarism" movement. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The Provisional Irish Republican Army, [IRA] helping to make a temporary conflict almost permanent. Bloody Sunday was one of the most brutal events of the 'Troubles', as large numbers of Catholic citizens were killed by British Army forces, in full view of the public and the press. This is the highest number of people killed in a single shooting during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Bloody Sunday increased the hostility of Catholic and Republican nationalists towards the British army and increased the conflict. Support for the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) increased and there was a wave of recruitment into the organization, notably in Derry and Belfast. At 4:07 p.m., soldiers were ordered to break through the barriers and arrest the Republican demonstrators. Soldiers, on foot and in armored vehicles, chased people down Rossville Street and into the Bogside. Two people were hit by British armored vehicles. Brigadier MacLellan had ordered that a single group of soldiers be sent on foot through the barriers and not pursue people down Rossville Street. Colonel Wilford disobeyed this order, meaning there was no separation between the Republican rioters and the demonstrators. The soldiers showed up and started arresting people. There were numerous allegations that soldiers beat people, hit them with rifle butts, fired rubber bullets at close range, made death threats, and shouted insults. The Saville report acknowledges that the soldiers “used excessive force when arresting the people and seriously assaulted them without good reason while they were in detention. A large group of people were chased through the Rossville Flats parking lot. This area looked like a courtyard, surrounded on three sides by tall buildings. The soldiers opened fire, killing one civilian and injuring six others. This mortal, Jackie Duddy, was running alongside a priest, Father Edward Daly, when he was shot in the back. Some of the injured received first aid from civilian volunteers, either on the spot or after being transported to nearby houses. They were then taken to hospital, either in civilian cars or ambulances. The first ambulances arrived at 4:28 p.m. The three boys killed on the rubble barricade were taken to hospital by the soldiers.