1. On the morning of Sunday 30 January 1972, around ten thousand people gathered in Londonderry
for a civil rights march.
2. The British Army had sealed off the original route so most of the demonstrators marched
towards the Catholic area of the city called ‘The Bogside’.
3. Despite this, a number of people continued on towards an army barricade where local youths threw
stones at soldiers.
4. The soldiers responded by firing water cannons and rubber bullets to make them go away
5. As the riot began to end, soldiers of the 1st Parachute Regiment (British Army) were ordered to
move in and arrest as many of the rioters as possible.
6. In the minutes that followed, some of these paratroopers opened fire on the crowd, killing
thirteen men and injuring 13 others, one of whom died some months later.
7. The wounded included a fifteen-year-old boy and a woman.
8. While the British Army claimed that its troops had responded after being fired at first, the
people of the Bogside saw it as murder.
Extra information:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/british_army_kills_13_on_bloody_sunday#p00nm4