The Bloody Sunday victims were armed
| The Bloody Sunday victims were armed | |
|---|---|
| FALSE | |
| "The people shot dead by British soldiers in Derry on Bloody Sunday, January 30, 1972, had been firing guns or throwing bombs." | |
| Domain | War, Conflict & Geopolitics |
| Tactic | Fabrication Propaganda Technique |
| Era | Historical |
| First seen | 1972 |
| Origin | British Army accounts and the April 1972 Widgery Tribunal report |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-30 |
| Further reading: books on War, Conflict & Geopolitics | |
On January 30, 1972, soldiers of the British Army's Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland. Thirteen people were killed that day, and another died later. The army said the soldiers had come under fire and had shot at gunmen and bomb throwers.
An official inquiry weeks later largely accepted the army's version. Families campaigned for nearly four decades to overturn it.
What the evidence shows
- Widgery. Lord Widgery's report, published in April 1972, said there was a strong suspicion some victims had fired weapons or handled bombs, and largely cleared the soldiers.
- Saville. The Bloody Sunday Inquiry, led by Lord Saville, reported in June 2010 that none of the casualties was posing a threat of death or serious injury, that soldiers fired first, and that some soldiers knowingly put forward false accounts to justify their firing.
- Apology. Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons on June 15, 2010, that the killings were "unjustified and unjustifiable" and apologized on behalf of the government.
- Prosecution. In 2019, a former paratrooper known as Soldier F was charged with murder.
Why it matters
An official finding that blamed the dead deepened the conflict in Northern Ireland. Its reversal 38 years later shows how long it can take to correct an institutional falsehood.
Gaslighting An official inquiry blamed the dead for their own killing; families spent 38 years overturning this institutional gaslighting. The word comes from Patrick Hamilton's 1938 play Gas Light and the 1944 film Gaslight, in which a husband dims the gas lamps and insists his wife is imagining it. Where the word comes from · More gaslighting cases
Sources
- Report of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry (Saville Report), June 15, 2010.
- Lord Widgery, Report of the Tribunal appointed to inquire into the events on Sunday, 30th January 1972, April 1972.
- UK Parliament, Hansard, statement by the Prime Minister on the Saville Inquiry, June 15, 2010.