Different Historical Interpretations of Bloody Sunday
On January 30th 1972, civil rights activists were involved in a
protest march against internment through Londonderry. British
paratroopers, who were deployed on the streets, shot and killed 13 of
the marchers and wounded others. Many people have different views on
what happened and why.
The main conflicting views are those of the paratroopers and their
supporters and the views of the marchers and the friends and family of
those killed. Source A is a newspaper report form the Daily Mail in
September 1999. It is a report on new evidence released from the
second enquiry into Bloody Sunday, led by Lord Saville. The headline
reads "PARAS IN BLOODY SUNDAY EVIDENCE STORM". This headline states
the situation that the report is based on. The report includes the
opinions of different people on the new evidence. The new evidence
suggests that the original tests, which confirmed that some of the
protesters shot had been handling firearms or explosives, may have
been contaminated. It concluded that, "there is no credible evidence
that any of the 14 people killed by the army in Londonderry in January
1972 had been handling firearms." The premature release of this
evidence "incensed" the paratroopers and their supporters. The
paratroopers have always claimed that every person shot appeared to be
armed and that "nail bombs and acid bombs" were thrown at them. The
Widgery Enquiry cleared them of any criminal charge, but this new
evidence could pave the way to charges being brought against them. The
conservative MP representing the constituency where the Paras are
based said "I had little fait...
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...l carriers and cleared
away the barricades. Also, Daniel Porter received this information
from off-duty soldiers in a pub. This evidence does not support or
discredit either the soldiers or the Protesters side of the story. It
is possible that Mr Porter came forward with this evidence in an
attempt to get media attention.
In conclusion, what actually happened on Bloody Sunday is interpreted
differently by different people, and always will be. Nobody can be
completely sure what actually happened, as many things happened in
different places and nobody was watching them all at the same time.
The opinion of people living in Londonderry may be influenced by
outside influences like IRA presence, and the views of the
Paratroopers and the Government may be influenced by an attempt to
defend themselves from repercussions.
Mr. Cockburn concluded that the evidence presented in this case was misinterpret and misapprehend, the leading investigation was “unscientific and slipshod” which lead to the sentence of Edward splatt. Many questions were raised, whether police officers should collect trace elements from the crime scene? The involvemet of police officers collecting samples rather than scientific experts which could lead to wrong and misleading evidence? The scientific procedure undertaking in this investigation. And these collected samples collected from officers and tested would lead to unvaluable piece of evidence.After Edward splatt conviction, anattorney- general by the name of Mr Griffin keeped a close eye on the case and examined the moran report and
On March 5th, 1770 in Boston, Massachusetts, a soldier rang a town bell that meant there was a fire or that police backup was needed after being approached by Boston residents who were being hostile towards him. In response to the bell being rung, British commanding officer, Thomas Preston, came to the soldier’s aid with armed British troops. Because the bell also meant “fire,” many residents flooded into the area believing a fire was occurring. A mob broke out, and the hostility of the Boston citizens rose. Objects such as ice and rocks were thrown and many citizens were armed with clubs, sticks, and other objects. At one point, an object hit a soldier, causing his gun to go off. Amidst all of the people screaming “fire,” British troops thought that Preston told them to fire.
Accidents do happen, as shown with the Boston Massacre. The crowds were getting rowdy, made then British soldiers panic, and they opened up fire.
On Bloodsworth’s appeal he argued several points. First he argued that there was not sufficient evidence to tie Bloodsworth to the crime. The courts ruled that the ruling stand on the grounds that the witness evidence was enough for reasonable doubt that the c...
... to a miscommunication between the Captain and his soldiers. If the crowd had not been in such an uproar the Boston Massacre never would have happened. With all the testimony and the deposition from the Captain, the jury made the correct decision by determining Preston innocent.
American and Southern version (Jones 263). He proposed that it was the existence of this
The bombings and marches in Birmingham Alabama were major concerns for all civil rights leaders. During the 50’s and 60’s, civil rights leaders fought against injustice in different ways. Some civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King and Jessie Jackson fought against injustice with a pen. In 1963 Martin Luther King wrote a letter titled, “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”, and Jessie Jackson wrote, “Jets of Water Blast Civil Rights Demonstrators, Birmingham, 1963.” Martin Luther King and Jessie Jackson are two civil rights leaders of different generations, but with similar views concerning the Birmingham bombings.
caused Union officials to call it an outright massacre. Was it a massacre or a result of
Protests occurred the next day, Friday, May 1, across United States college campuses where anti-war viewpoints ran high. At Kent State University, many speeches against the war and the Nixon administration were given. Satrom, the Mayor was fearful that local forces would be insufficient to meet the amount of protesters, and he called the Governor's office to make an official request for assistance from the Ohio National Guard for the protest on Monday. At noon on Monday May 4th, General Canterbury of the National Guard made the decision to order the protesters to clear out. A Kent State police officer standing by the Guard made an announcement using a bullhorn. When the protesters did not clear out, they drove across the Commons and started to tell eve...
The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is the building is the largest monument of Russian mosaic art. It stands on the shores of the Neva River on the site where on March 1, 1881 Tsar-Liberator Alexander II was mortally wounded by Nikolai Rysakov, a young member of the Narodnaya Volya ("People's Will") movement. Upon Tsar’s death, Russia suffered a devastating blow to the rapid advancing economical and social foundations and sent Russia back to the days of blood and Dark Age. Russian people not only lost their beloved Tsar but lost their chances of having constitutional monarchy enforced and followed by all of Russia. For the first time in a long time Russia was relatively living in peaceful world and had reforms that were for the common people. Thirty years before the assassination, Alexander II drafted and successfully executed his reform plans in every aspect of Russian Empire: self governing power was given to serfs, the cities became more independent, education system and access to education had been eased and improved and major overhaul of outdate military forces had been successfully executed. Russia was finally on her right path. After the assassination, Alexander III was crowned as Tsar Alexander III. One of the first projects Alexander III began his work on was Church of the Savior. New Tsar set the condition that the Cathedral of the Resurrection (the official name of the temple) was to be built on the model of the Old Russian style churches on the exact spot where his father was assassinated. Money for such grand project was collected across Russia for almost two years. It costs staggering 4.5 million rubles and took 24 years to construct. The best of the best were commissioned to erect Church of the Savior. The con...
Whitehouse goes on to saying that a soldier got knocked down by a chunk of wood that a man got it from under his coat. Based on most against Preston and some for Preston testimonies like the Benjamin Burdick against testimony, he said that he saw” stick thrown at the Soldiers” not a big chunk of wood that would knock a soldier out. Whitehouse testimony was most likely to distract the jury from the other strong testimonies that were made against Preston, so they might think that there is something that they are misinterpreted from the other testimonies. These testimonies show evidence that Preston ordered his soldiers to fire at people who some of them were innocents who were just there to fulfill their curiosity of the situation to murder them. The Boston Massacre created a new attitude in people that was not there before. It created more hatred toward the British forces living with them and taking their money from them. It also made us understand that the American Revolution is coming because the people will not wait until another massacre to happen to kill more people of their own, they want the British to
In the roaring twenties, the life of organized crimes was at its peak. What was the greatest mob hit ever pulled off in history? Well I'll tell you. It all happened on Valentines Day, the morning of February 14th, 1929. This incident was call, "The St. Valentines Day Massacre". The man behind this infamous crime was none other than, the infamous Al "Scarface" Capone. Al Capone was the all time greatest mobster of all time. The idea of organized crime fascinates me in so many ways. Capone was the only person to have pulled off such a crime. Al Capone was top gangster in Chicago and was one of the greatest members of the Italian Mafia and George "Bugs" Moran was the leader of the Irish/German mafia and he was the main target behind this hit. He targeted Capone because Al Capones had a bounty on his head, $60,000,000, and found George Moran as a threat. George was Capone's biggest threat of all. He needed to take him out quickly. (Al Capone, True Crime Story). Writing this paper will let me learn a lot more about this massacre. There is one question I would like answered, "Why hadn't Moran's crew made an attempt to fight back?" (Al Capone, True Crime Story). Moran's men had a long history of being violent with others. This is one question that we will never know. My most used source on this essay will be internet information and a book. I feel these sources will give me the most amount of information. Using a magazine will too but it was very hard to find a 20's magazine article.
Bass, Jack. “Documenting the Orangeburg Massacre.” Nieman Reports. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, Fall 2003. Accessed November 21, 2013 http://neiman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=100992
...in down on the square. People in the crowd collapse like levees in a flood” (p.214). The bullets “rain down” onto the people which meant it was basically a free for all; the soldiers just fired like it’s a casual thing to do. They don’t even feel sorry about the all the people they are killing. The people there had job, friends, families, and a life, but the soldiers were following orders. I felt a sense of rage, and anger when I read this. I question if the soldiers have any moral because they had a choice of obeying or disobeying their orders.
In the Bogside area of Derry, there was a tragic incident known as Bloody Sunday or the Bogside Massacre for sometimes. Twenty-eight unarmed civilians were shot down by equipped British soldiers when protesting internment without trial introduced to deal with the escalating level of violence peacefully.(Gillespie). As a reaction to the tragedy, Bano in an Irish band called U2 wrote a protest song called Sunday Bloody Sunday, in which he asked for the peaceful future without conflicts. Repeating “how long must we sing this song?” among the whole lyric, this protest song Bano wrote utilized a peaceful way to depict the scenes of Bloody Sunday, the loathing for the horrible massacre, and their beautiful expects for the future filling with hopes.