Bloody Sunday: local reactions remembered, 50 years on

This Sunday, 50 years will have passed since British security forces shot 26 unarmed civilians in the Bogside area of Derry during a protest march against internment without trial. Fourteen people died in what became known as ‘Bloody Sunday’, or the ‘Bogside Massacre’.

Reaction south of the border was emotional, and in places accompanied by direct action. “A Killarney man’s reaction on seeing the TV footage – ‘The British are murderous bastards’ – was doubtlessly replicated across the state,” said historian Brian Hanley, in his study of the impact of the Troubles on the Republic of Ireland (1968-79). In Cork, dockers boarded a British ship and forced the crew to fly a black flag. Workers went on strike; there were shows of force by the IRA, and a series of massive nationwide protests.

The reaction was no different in Mullingar in terms of passion, but was notable for its ecumenical spirit. Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter were united locally in their outrage at the events in Derry. In a report on the front page of the Westmeath Examiner of February 5, 1972, it was stated that the chairman of Westmeath County Council, Richard O’Neill – a member of the Church of Ireland – was commended by his council colleagues when he moved to adjourn the body’s monthly meeting as a mark of respect.

Mr O’Neill was praised by Senator Sean Keegan (Fianna Fáil), who also suggested that the Tricolour over the county buildings be flown at half mast and a telegram of protest sent to the British embassy.

Labour’s Jimmy Bennett stated that the “brutality” of British forces was something to be deplored; he also criticised RTÉ for giving less coverage to the massacre than the BBC. Alluding to the arms crisis of 1970, Mr Bennett said that Ireland “must now consider how right Mr Blaney and his friends were”.

Paddy Cooney (Fine Gael) expressed his hopes that the incidents in Derry would not provoke a cycle of violence and reprisals, while Delvin councillor Paddy O’Shaughnessy called on the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, to “put more power behind him to bring about peace in the north”.

John H Keegan (FG) described the actions of British security forces as “nothing less than cold blooded murder”, while Joe Sheridan, TD, added: “Heretofore, the blame was being put on the IRA. Now they knew who was to blame and who the culprits were.”

In 1972, many veterans of the Irish War of Independence were still alive, and so inevitably they became caught up in the reaction to the massacre. Tom Barry, who in November 1920 led the IRA in an ambush and killing of 16 Auxiliaries at Kilmichael, Co. Cork, addressed a crowd of 5,000 in Cork city. Likewise, in Mullingar, Michael McCoy – a leading Mullingar IRA officer during the War of Independence – attended the county council meeting and asked the people of Westmeath to “stand behind the people of the six counties”.

Demonstrations

Mullingar was the scene of some evocative demonstrations in the days after the massacre. There was a parade through the centre of the town on Wednesday February 2, with a black coffin carried through the streets. Mourning flags were displayed on houses and business premises, several of which, like local schools, were closed. The workers at the Bord na Móna works in Derrygreenagh, Rochfortbridge signed off for the day and stood in a guard of honour with other workers, business people and schoolchildren in Mullingar.

Church and state were keen to own the demonstrations, and so the parade ended at the Cathedral of Christ the King, where Rev. Fr J Conway, CC, Mullingar, offered Mass for the victims of the massacre.

“Thousands of people packed the Cathedral for the Mass,” the Examiner reported. Lessons were read by local schoolteacher Sean O’Riordan and Garda Sgt Brendon Colvert. The Bishop of Meath, Dr John McCormack, celebrated evening Mass for the victims later that evening.

“If history has anything to teach it is this – that military might does not make peace and fails notably to contribute to it,” the bishop said in his homily, suggesting that a departure of British military forces from Northern Ireland might ease the situation. “The events of last weekend have had their parallels in Irish history half a century ago. Many, too, are conscious of more modern parallels in our own times in the sufferings of Algeria and Vietnam.”

Meanwhile, a protest was organised in Mullingar by the Barnes-McCormack cumann of Sinn Féin, which drew the support of thousands of people from Mullingar and “outlying areas”. Again, a black coffin was carried in the parade, draped in the Tricolour. A Union Jack was publicly burned on the platform by Caitlín Bean Uí Muimheacháin, and speakers included Peter Kiernan, Sean O’Riordan, Colmán Ó Muimheacháin and Nuala O’Donoghue. There was particular interest in the remarks by Ms O’Donoghue – a Mullingar native married and living in Derry – who “told of atrocities and harassment of Catholics in that city”.

The Sinn Féin contingent made appeals for the British military to leave the North, for funds for the dependants of those killed in Derry, and for the end of internment.

Religious ceremonies took place around the county. There were Church of Ireland services held at All Saints Church, Mullingar, led by the Rev. Ian McDougall, and at Wilson’s Hospital, Multyfarnham. Catholic Masses were celebrated at St Finian’s College, at the House of St Camillus, Killucan and the Franciscan Abbey in Multyfarnham.

At the Mass in Multy, Fr Otteran Duane, OFM, compared the events in Derry to the “plundering of Multyfarnham Friary in 1691 by [the] edict of Elizabeth I”.

On the sporting front, Derravaragh Cup tournament games arranged for the Sunday after the killings in Derry were postponed, with meetings of Westmeath GAA’s county and minor boards adjourned as a mark of respect to the relatives of the Derry victims. A sitting of Mullingar Circuit Court was also adjourned.