Oppression can only survive through silence.
- Carmen de Monteflores

Banner and Crosses carried by the families of the Bloody Sunday victims on the annual commemoration march.

I have often criticized the lack of good literature explaining the events of Bloody Sunday untainted and comprehensible. I have been faced with the same dilemma, now that I am in the middle of writing chapter four of my novel “The Bleeding Hills“, where Bloody Sunday takes center stage.

For the record, I am not looking down on those who were present at Bloody Sunday and wrote a book about it. An atrocity like this should be a part of a well recorded history, but I also believe that, in order to spark the interest of future generations, you need to start with the basics and these basics should, first of all, not be politically tainted; consequently they will lose credibility. In regards to comprehensiveness of recorded history, it does not help to confuse the newcomer to Irish history by frequently referring to Unionists, Republicans, Loyalists, MRF, SAS, MI5, MI6, Real IRA, Continuity IRA, RUC, Provisional IRA, INLA, NICRA, Saville, Widgery, MP, PM, etc., etc., without providing a comprehensible reference. The majority of books and web sites I found on the subject were written by experts for experts, having only their own indulgence in mind. What a waste of resources and what a waste to make it so difficult for our children to understand history!

As I wrote, I have been faced with the same dilemma of describing the background of Bloody Sunday in a way that it would seamlessly fit into my story line without boring or overwhelming the reader. In my novel, the main character, Finn Whelan, is an eye-witness of the events and I needed to explain the history that led to Bloody Sunday.

The Bleeding Hills - A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

Here is my draft version:
The British occupation of the Irish island began as early as the late twelfth century and the history of English rule is filled with attempts to annihilate the Irish identity, which bear striking characteristics of Hitler’s henchmen trying to eliminate the Jewish population in Germany, however, not quite as methodical.

History is also filled with constant acts of Irish resistance and no ruling king or parliament was ever able to solve the problem. It is said that the nineteenth century Prime Minister William Eward Gladstone tried to deal with the Irish question, but never found the answer, as the Irish continued to change the question.

December 1921 saw the signing of the ‘Articles of Agreement for a Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland’, which established a free Irish state with jurisdiction over twenty-six of the thirty-two counties. It also created the separate province of Northern Ireland which remained under British control. It consists of the six northeastern counties of the predominantly Protestant Ulster region.

The deal, as negotiated by the founder of the IRA, Michael Collins, did not find the approval of the entire Irish population and, even though the Republic of Ireland was officially established, the fight for an Irish reunification began. The importance of the IRA, though, endured a slow, but continuous decline until the late 1960s, which saw increased confrontations between the Civil Rights movement in Northern Ireland and British officials, especially the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the official police force in Northern Ireland.

The Civil Rights movement’s demand was, just to name one single issue, for equal voting rights. The current system allowed only house owners to vote in local elections and they were predominantly Protestants supporting British rule in Northern Ireland. The Protestant majority defended their superiority by engaging their own militias against Catholics, supported by the predominantly Protestant RUC. By the summer of 1969 these disputes reached the dimensions of an outright Civil War and in August of 1969 the British government deployed troops to Northern Ireland, with the intention to restore public order. The mission was called “Operation Banner” and was envisioned to last only a few months. As a matter of fact, Operation Banner lasted thirty-eight years; it ended at midnight on July 31, 2007 and it represents the longest deployment in the history of the British Army. More than 3500 people died and 763 soldiers were killed.

Initially, the Catholic population welcomed the presence of the army in the hope they would act as a neutral force and protect them against the RUC and loyalists. But their hopes were shattered in July 1970 during a British operation called “Falls Curfew”, which resulted in three days of rioting and battles between the British Army and Irish Republican paramilitaries. Five people were killed and three hundred were arrested. The British Army became a player in the conflict, not a referee.

This is the in-a-nutshell-history that led to the events of Bloody Sunday on January 30, 1972. There should be many more references included, but, as I wrote, I needed to be short and efficient in my novel.

According to the CAIN Web Service (see http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/bsunday/sum.htm):
‘Bloody Sunday’ refers to the events that took place in Derry on the afternoon of Sunday 30 January 1972. A Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) march had been organised to protest against the continuation of Internment without trial in Northern Ireland. Between ten and twenty thousand men, women and children took part in the march in a ‘carnival atmosphere’. The march was prevented from entering the city centre by members of the British Army. The main body of the march then moved to ‘Free Derry Corner’ to attend a rally but some young men began throwing stones at soldiers in William Street. Soldiers of the Parachute Regiment, an elite regiment of the British Army, moved into the Bogside in an arrest operation. During the next 30 minutes these soldiers shot dead 13 men (and shot and injured a further 13 people) mainly by single shots to the head and trunk.
The soldiers responsible for the deaths and injuries insisted that they had come under sustained gun and bomb attack by members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and only fired at people in possession of weapons. Those involved in the march, and those who witnessed the events, provided evidence that ran contrary to the evidence given by the soldiers. According to these civilian testimonies none of those killed or injured had any guns or bombs.

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