"This Sunday became known as Bloody Sunday and bloody it was. It strikes me that the Army ran amok that day and shot without thinking what they were doing. They were shooting innocent people. These people may have been taking part in a march that was banned but that does not justify the troops coming in and firing live rounds indiscriminately. I would say wit ought hesitation that it was sheer, unadulterated murder. It was murder!" -Major Hubert O"Neil, the Coroner.
Many contradictories are involved in the happenings on that January 30, 1972. That day that quickly was known as Bloody Sunday. I believe that we will never know the full story, or one non-differential one. Because as time goes by, the least likely this chapter of the big story will be finished with no error. When I speak of the "big story" I of course mean the conflict between Ireland and N. Ireland (and the British). And this big story is one that seems to be a never-ending one. .
It all started back in Tudor times when the British invaded and then dominated Ireland, and then when the British divided Ireland in 1921. But it all has intensified since 1968 and has claimed over 3,500 people's lives. The Irish people wanted their complete independence from England ever since the initial invasion. They wanted nothing else and nothing more but home rule. Home rule is local control over internal matters. The British refused home rule for many decades. A reason for this refusal was for concern for the Irish Protestants, because they were the minority in a land filled with Catholics. Most Irish Catholics lived in the Northern part of Ireland known as Ulster. .
In the second half of the 1800's resistance was great. Since greater number of Irish preferred home rule, attacks against British officials sparked a war between the Irish nationalists and the British government. In 1914 the parliament enacted a home rule bill for Southern Ireland but a month before it took action World War One erupted and Irish home rule was put on hold.