The Background to Bloody Sunday
Contents
Page
Paragraph
A note on terminology 6.5
Chapter 7: The period up to July 1971 105
Paragraph
The formation of Northern Ireland 7.1
The city of Londonderry 7.14
The post-war period to the 1960s 7.21
The birth of the civil rights movement 7.27
Protest marches and violence 7.34
The developing demands of the civil rights movement 7.47
The reforms of November 1968 7.50
The People’s Democracy march 7.55
The Cameron Enquiry 7.59
Political developments, further violence and the deployment of the Army 7.62
The Scarman Inquiry 7.74
The Hunt Committee and its recommendations 7.81
The split in the IRA and Sinn Féin 7.86
Violence and unrest in Londonderry and Belfast during 1970 7.88
Changes in the political situation in 1970 7.95
Events during the first six months of 1971 7.97
The shooting of Seamus Cusack and Desmond Beattie 7.107
Chapter 8: The period from August to December 1971 142
Paragraph
Government and security structures 8.2
The relationship between the Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary 8.29
Internment 8.35
Legality of the ban on marches 8.47
The response to internment 8.49
The period of containment 8.56
The treatment of internees 8.66
The tripartite talks 8.71
General Carver’s military appreciation of the security situation 8.77
The meeting between the British and Northern Irish Prime Ministers on
7th October 1971 8.89
Major General Ford’s Directive 8.100
The Northern Ireland Government’s Green Paper 8.106
Brigadier MacLellan’s Directive 8.110
The Yellow Card 8.121
The GEN 47 meeting on 11th November 1971 8.124
Edward Heath’s Guildhall speech 8.126
The visit of Harold Wilson to Northern Ireland 8.127
Further GEN 47 Committee meetings 8.132
The end of the containment phase in Londonderry 8.139
Major General Ford’s December 1971 visit to Londonderry 8.142
Reginald Maudling’s meeting at Headquarters Northern Ireland 8.161
General Carver’s visit to Northern Ireland 8.171
Meeting of the Ministry of Defence’s Northern Ireland Policy Group 8.180
Edward Heath’s visit to Londonderry 8.185
Proposals for a political initiative 8.186
The resumption of marches 8.193
Chapter 9: The weeks before Bloody Sunday 214
Paragraph
The gravity of civil disorder in Londonderry by the end of 1971 and in early 1972 9.1
The Army in Northern Ireland in January 1972 9.39
The role of the Royal Ulster Constabulary 9.64
The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association 9.65
Events during January 1972 9.87
Chapter 6: Introduction
6.1 Although this Inquiry is concerned with the events of a single day, which has become generally known as “Bloody Sunday”, those events cannot be properly considered in isolation. Thus it has been necessary for us to consider the course of events in Northern Ireland leading up to that day.
6.2 The account we give is not intended as a comprehensive history of Northern Ireland. Such a work would be highly complex and in our view is not within our terms of reference. Instead, we have sought to provide the reader with a general background, taking as our starting point the Government of Ireland Act 1920. We deal with the period up to July 1971 in relatively broad terms, before looking in greater detail at the relevant events of the last six months of that year and in greater detail still at what was happening in the weeks immediately preceding Bloody Sunday.
6.3 During the course of this Inquiry a number of allegations were made to the effect that members of the British and Northern Ireland Governments, as well as the security forces, had so conducted themselves in the months leading up to Bloody Sunday that they bore a heavy responsibility for what happened on that day. We deal with these allegations at the relevant points in this report.
6.4 We have been greatly assisted by reports prepared for this Inquiry by the distinguished historians Professor Paul Arthur and Professor Paul Bew.1 In addition we read a number of books and consulted other secondary sources, including the reports of inquiries conducted by Lord Cameron and Mr Justice Scarman (later Lord Scarman) into disturbances in Northern Ireland in the 1960s. These sources are listed in the bibliography and, where relevant, identified in footnotes. When dealing with the period after July 1971, including the weeks immediately preceding Bloody Sunday, our account was drawn primarily from the documents and other materials that were collected by this Inquiry, as well as the written and oral evidence to this Inquiry of a number of witnesses. We have also had regard to the submissions made by the interested parties who appeared before us.
1 E6.0001-0047 (Professor Arthur’s report); E7.0001-0043 (Professor Bew’s report). We have also taken into account the comments made by Professor Arthur and Professor Bew on each other’s reports (E17.1.1; E17.2.1; E17.3.1), and their answers to written questions posed by the representatives of some of the interested parties to this Inquiry (E17.4.1; E17.5.1; E17.6.1; E17.7.1; E17.8.1; E17.9.1; E17.10.1; E17.11.1).
A note on terminology
6.5 We have used the terms nationalist, republican, unionist and loyalist at various points throughout the report. These words are a convenient way of identifying and referring to groups or ideas, but they also present problems. When capitalised, the terms “Nationalist” and “Unionist” usually refer to specific political parties: the Nationalist Party, the main united Ireland party in Northern Ireland until the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the Ulster Unionist Party, which remained in government in Northern Ireland throughout the period with which this report is concerned. However, “nationalist” and “unionist” are also used to describe wider political and ideological positions concerned with opposition to, or support for, the union between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. In this context, “nationalist” and “unionist” are generally used to indicate a constitutional approach, in contrast to “republican” and “loyalist”, which often (but not always) imply an acceptance of, or belief in, the legitimacy of using violence to advance the relevant cause. These labels are imprecise and the meanings ascribed to them have changed over time and according to context. Where we use these terms in this report we have sought to make clear what we mean by them. They should not be understood as implying that a monolithic set of opinions prevailed among the group that is being identified.
6.6 We have also used the terms “Catholic” and “Protestant” as a way of identifying part or all of the Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland. Again, the context in which these terms are used influences the meaning that should be attached to them, and it is important to stress that no single view or attribute should be ascribed to either community as a whole.
