Welcome to Tales of The Troubles. In this instalment, we will look at all the key events in January 1972. I hope you like it, and as always, please comment on anything you’ve particularly liked or anything you would like to see. Enjoy!
5 World Events
A lot was going on in the world in January 1972. Below are 5 key events that, if you lived through this period, may help transport you back in time. If not, it may help add some context to how the world outside of The Troubles looked.
Led by future Lakers star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Milwaukee Bucks beat LA Lakers, 120-104, ending LA's consecutive win streak at 33, the longest winning streak in major league sports history.
World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier stops Terry Daniels in 4 rounds in New Orleans to retain his WBC and WBA titles.
Columbia Records releases "Paul Simon", the second solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It includes the singles "Mother and Child Reunion" and "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard".
Super Bowl VI, Tulane Stadium, New Orleans, LA. The Dallas Cowboys beat the Miami Dolphins, 24-3. The MVP was Cowboys QB, Roger Staubach.
British coal miners begin a national strike, the first in half a century.
Shootings
January 1972 had 21 fatal shootings, with the IRA reportedly responsible for 7 and the British Army reportedly accountable for 14.
British soldier Keith Bryan (18) was shot dead by an IRA sniper while on foot patrol, Ardmoulin Street, Lower Falls, Belfast on the 5th of January.
On the 7th of January, IRA volunteer Daniel O'Neill (20) died two days after being shot during a gun battle with British troops, Oranmore Street, Clonard, West Belfast.
Off-duty RUC reservist Raymond Denham (42 was shot dead by an IRA unit at his workplace, Waterford Street, Lower Falls, Belfast on the 12th of January.
On the 13th of January, off-duty UDR soldier Maynard Crawford (38) was shot dead by an IRA sniper while driving his firm's van along King's Road, off Doagh Road, Newtownabbey, County Antrim.
An IRA unit fought a 4-hour gun battle with a British Army detachment at Dungooley, County Armagh on the 27th of January. The British Army alone fired over 4,500 rounds while the IRA returned fire with assault rifles and an anti-tank gun. There were no casualties in the battle, however, eight IRA volunteers were arrested south of the border but were eventually acquitted.
On the same day, two RUC officers, Peter Gilgun (26) and David Montgomery (20), were shot dead by the IRA in an attack on their patrol car on the Creggan Road, Derry/Londonderry.
Off-duty RUC officer Raymond Carroll (22) was shot dead in an IRA gun attack at a garage, Oldpark Road, Belfast on the 28th of January.
British soldier, Robin Alers-Hankey (35), died on the 30th of January, four months after being injured in an IRA sniper attack in the Bogside, Derry.
The 30th of January 1972; ‘Bloody Sunday’, refers to the shooting dead by the British Army of 13 civilians (and the wounding of another 14 people, one of whom later died) during a Civil Rights march in Derry. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march against internment was meant to start at 2.00 pm from the Creggan.
The march left late, at around 2.50 pm, from Central Drive in the Creggan Estate and took an indirect route towards the Bogside area of the city. People joined the march along its entire route.
At around 3.25 pm, the march passed the 'Bogside Inn' and turned up Westland Street before going down William Street. Estimates of the number of marchers at this point vary, with some observers putting the number as high as 20,000, whereas the Widgery Report estimated the number at between 3,000 and 5,000.
At around 3.45 pm most of the marchers followed the organisers’ instructions and turned right into Rossville Street to hold a meeting at 'Free Derry Corner'. However, a section of the crowd continued along William Street to the British Army barricade. A riot developed. Confrontations between the Catholic youth of Derry and the British Army had become a common feature of life in the city and many observers reported that the rioting was not particularly intense.
At approximately 3.55 pm, away from the riot and also out of sight of the meeting, soldiers (believed to be a machine-gun platoon of Paratroopers) in a derelict building in William Street opened fire (shooting 5 rounds) and injured Damien Donaghy (15) and John Johnston (59). Both were treated for injuries and were taken to hospital (Johnston died on 16 June 1972). There were suggestions that an Official IRA member then fired a single shot in response at the soldiers in the derelict building. This incident happened prior to the main shooting and also out of sight of Rossville Street.
Also around this time (about 3.55 pm) as the riot in William Street was breaking up, Paratroopers requested permission to begin an arrest operation.
By around 4.05 pm, most people had moved to 'Free Derry Corner' to attend the meeting.
At 4.07pm (approximately), an order was given for a 'sub unit' (Support Company) of the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment to move into William Street to begin an arrest operation directed at any remaining rioters. The order authorising the arrest operation specifically stated that the soldiers were "not to conduct running battle down Rossville Street" (Official Brigade Log). The soldiers of Support Company were under the command of Ted Loden, then a Major in the Parachute Regiment (and were the only soldiers to fire at the crowd from street level).
At approximately 4.10 pm, soldiers of the Support Company of the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment began to open fire on people in the area of Rossville Street Flats.
By about 4.40 pm the shooting ended with 13 people dead and a further 14 injured from gunshots. Many of the victims were shot while fleeing from the soldiers, and some were shot while trying to help the wounded. The shooting took place in four main places; the car park (courtyard) of Rossville Flats, the forecourt of Rossville Flats (between the Flats and Joseph Place), the rubble and wire barricade on Rossville Street (between Rossville Flats and Glenfada Park) and in the area around Glenfada Park (between Glenfada Park and Abbey Park). According to British Army evidence 21 soldiers fired their weapons on 'Bloody Sunday' and shot 108 rounds in total.
Two investigations were held by the British government. The Widgery Tribunal, held in the aftermath, largely cleared the soldiers and British authorities of blame. It described some of the soldiers' shootings as "bordering on the reckless", but accepted their claims that they shot at gunmen and bomb-throwers. The report was widely criticised as a "whitewash".
The Saville Inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, was established in 1998 to reinvestigate the incident much more thoroughly. Following a twelve-year investigation, Saville's report was made public in 2010 and concluded that the killings were "unjustified" and "unjustifiable". It found that all of those shot were unarmed, that none were posing a serious threat, that no bombs were thrown and that soldiers "knowingly put forward false accounts" to justify their firing. The soldiers denied shooting the named victims but also denied shooting anyone by mistake. On publication of the report, British Prime Minister David Cameron formally apologised. Following this, police began a murder investigation into the killings. One former soldier was charged with murder, but the case was dropped two years later when evidence was deemed inadmissible. Following an appeal by the families of the victims, however, the Public Prosecution Service resumed the prosecution.
Bloody Sunday came to be regarded as one of the most significant events of the Troubles because so many civilians were killed by forces of the state, in view of the public and the press. It was the highest number of people killed in a shooting incident during the conflict and is considered the worst mass shooting in Northern Irish history. Bloody Sunday fuelled Catholic and Irish nationalist hostility to the British Army and worsened the conflict. Support for the IRA rose, and there was a surge in recruitment into the organisation, especially locally. The Republic of Ireland held a national day of mourning, and huge crowds besieged and burnt down the British Embassy in Dublin.
Bombings
There were 3 bomb-related incidents in January 1972, with 2 deaths and a further 60 people injured. It’s reported that the IRA were responsible for 3 of these incidents.
On the 3rd of January, the IRA exploded a bomb in Callender Street, Belfast, which injured over 60 people.
British soldier Philip Stentiford (18) was killed when he stepped on an IRA landmine, Derrynoose, near Keady, County Armagh on the 21st of January.
IRA volunteer Peter McNulty (47) was killed when a bomb he was planting at an RUC base in Castlewellan, County Down, exploded accidentally.
Political Developments
Amongst the violence, there were quite a lot of significant political developments that took place in an attempt to gain control and bring peace.
There was an anti-internment rally in Belfast on the 2nd of January.
On the 10th of January, Sir Burke Trend, then Cabinet Secretary, sent a note to Edward Heath, then Prime Minister, on matters related to Inter-Party Talks, the Security Situation and Internment. You can read the note here.
Seven IRA volunteers, jailed in the prison ship HMS Maidstone, escaped successfully through a porthole on the side away from the dock on the 17th of January. It’s reported that they cut through a bar on the porthole before, in only their underwear, swimming to the dockside in the freezing water and hijacking a bus which they drove to the Market area. The escapees later held a press conference.
On the 18th of January, Brian Faulkner, then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, banned all parades and marches in Northern Ireland until the end of the year.
An anti-internment march was held at Magilligan strand, County Derry on the 22nd of January, with several thousand people participating. As the march neared the internment camp it was stopped by members of the Green Jackets and the Parachute Regiment of the British Army, who used barbed wire to close off the beach. When it appeared that the marchers were going to go around the wire, the army then fired rubber bullets and CS gas at close range into the crowd. A number of witnesses claimed that the paratroopers (who had been bused from Belfast to police the march) severely beat protesters and had to be physically restrained by their own officers. John Hume accused the soldiers of "beating, brutalising and terrorising the demonstrators". There was also an anti-internment parade in Armagh, County Armagh.
On the 24th of January, Frank Lagan, then Chief Superintendent of the Royal Ulster Constabulary notified Andrew MacLellan, then Commander 8 Infantry Brigade, of his contact with the Civil Rights Association, and informed him of their intention to hold a non-violent demonstration protesting against Internment on 30 January 1972. He also asked that the march be allowed to take place without military intervention. MacLellan agreed to recommend this approach to General Ford, then Commander of Land Forces in Northern Ireland. However, Ford had placed Derek Wilford, Commander of the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment, in charge of the proposed arrest operation.
The following day, General Ford put Andrew MacLellan, Commander 8 Infantry Brigade, in overall command of the operation to contain the civil rights march planned for 30 January 1972.
On the 27th of January, The Democratic Unionist Party association in Derry/Londonderry announced that it was going to hold a public religious rally at the same place, on the same date and at the same time, as the civil rights march planned for 30 January 1972.
The following day, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), in an effort to avoid a repeat of the violence at Milligan Strand on 22 January 1972, placed "special emphasis on the necessity for a peaceful incident-free day" at the next NICRA march on the 30th of January. According to a Channel 4 documentary 'Secret History: Bloody Sunday', broadcast on the 22nd of January 1992, Ivan Cooper, then a Member of Parliament at Stormont, who was involved in the organisation of the march, had obtained assurances from the IRA that its members would withdraw from the area during the march.
On the 31st of January, Reginald Maudling, then British Home Secretary, made a statement to the House of Commons on the events of 'Bloody Sunday';
"The Army returned the fire directed at them with aimed shots and inflicted a number of casualties on those who were attacking them with firearms and with bombs".
Maudling then went on to announce an Inquiry into the circumstances of the march.
Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this instalment of Tales of The Troubles. Keep an eye on your inbox for the next one!