30‭ ‬January‭ ‬1972:‭ ‬Bloody Sunday‭ – ‬British soldiers shot‭ ‬26‭ ‬people taking part in a Civil Rights March in Derry City.‭ ‬13‭ ‬were killed that day and another man died of his wounds.‭ ‬Widespread condemnation followed throughout Ireland and abroad.‭ ‬The British Army claimed that its soldiers had fired at identifiable gunmen and bombers.‭ ‬The participants and survivors of the March and many independent witnesses refuted this.‭

The shootings took place as a major Civil Rights March was coming to an end.‭ ‬Sporadic rioting had broken out involving some hundreds of youths and members of the British Army.‭ ‬These developments were not unexpected and not seen as out of the ordinary at the time.‭ ‬Then for some reason never satisfactorily explained members of the‭ ‬1st Battalion,‭ ‬the Parachute Regiment‭ ‬who were deployed in the City that day opened indiscriminate fire on rioters and innocent bystanders alike,‭ ‬shooting many people and arresting many more.‭ ‬At the time panic and fear were quickly replaced by anger and grief.‭ ‬These gruesome events were a watershed for many Irish People and undermined any conception that the British were neutral in the North of Ireland.

The men shot dead that day were:

Patrick‭ ('‬Paddy‭') ‬Doherty‭ (‬31‭)
Gerald Donaghy‭ (‬17‭)
John‭ ('‬Jackie‭') ‬Duddy‭ (‬17‭)
Hugh Gilmour‭ (‬17‭)
Michael Kelly‭ (‬17‭)
Michael McDaid‭ (‬20‭)
Kevin McElhinney‭ (‬17‭)
Bernard‭ ('‬Barney‭') ‬McGuigan‭ (‬41‭)
Gerald McKinney‭ (‬35‭)
William‭ ('‬Willie‭') ‬McKinney‭ (‬26‭)
William Nash‭ (‬19‭)
James‭ ('‬Jim‭') ‬Wray‭ (‬22‭)
John Young‭ (‬17‭)

John Johnston‭ (‬59‭) – ‬died‭ ‬16‭ ‬June‭ ‬1972.