January 30- Sunday, Bloody Sunday

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   Three events in British History today, one symbolical, one farcical and one seminal, namely the last, and most recent one, that was one of the defining moments of the modern United Kingdom.

Let's start with the last one. 

On January 30, 1972, it was a Sunday, a demonstration organized by  Civil Rights groups in Northern Ireland marched through the streets of Derry. Exact figures are still disputed, but a few thousand people protested against the structural discrimination of the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland, the province of Ulster that had remained British after the rest of Ireland had gained independence in the 20s. 

The march began peaceful enough,winding its way through the Catholic area of Derry, being prevented by a large contingent of the British army to reach the center of town. As it was customary during the �troubles� a few over-enthusiastic teenagers, not happy being restrained by army barricades, began to hurl obscenities at the British troops, and when that didn't show any effect, stones. The army answered with the usual barrage of water canons, �dum-dum�bullets and the like. 

It seemed just an ordinary day in the troubled province. 

 Civil Rights March in Derry, Jan 30, 1972

What happened next has been the subject of countless inquiries, public and private, of films and documentaries, and of many songs and ballads, and until today the exact sequence of events that followed has never been satisfactorily been reconstructed.  What is however clear, is that all hell broke loose in Derry on that Sunday afternoon and what had started as a protest march, ended as the one of the worst massacres of the wars for Irish independence. 

The British paratroopers suddenly opened fire at the marching crowd, shooting indiscriminately at the panicking people running for their lives and when the guns had died down, fourteen protesters were killed and numerous others  wounded.

Why, by whom and when the orders were given to fire live ammunition at the unarmed crowd, has subsequently been hotly disputed, with both sides giving contrary accounts of the events. Not surprisingly, the British Army, backed by the British Government, stated initially that they only had returned fire having been attacked by Irish snipers, thus having been acting in self defence.  First inquiries in the incident, conducted by the British establishment, soon asserted this version, not without relying on false witness statements and faked evidence. 

A subsequent inquiry, held in the last few years, contradicts these findings, and agrees more with the statements of the Civil Rights Movement, that had always insisted that the British Army had not been attacked, but deliberately had set out to kill innocent protesters.

Whatever happened on that day, it proved fatal for Northern Ireland. Had the resistance by the Catholic minority in Ulster against British occupation up till then shown the same more peaceful tactics of similar civil rights movements, the events of �Bloody Sunday� changed the nature of the conflict profoundly. The killing of 14 innocent, unarmed protesters proved to be the single most successful recruitment drive for the more militant factions of the Nationalist Irish population. The IRA, having played a rather insignificant role in the last few decades, got a new lease of live, and with many more volunteers joining the ranks after this day in Derry, was able to sustain armed struggle against the British troops in Ulster for the next 25 years.

Rather symbolical was the execution of Charles I of England on January 30, 1649. It marked all but the end of the English Civil War, and thus the victory of the forces of the Puritan parliament under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell. The defeated King was accused, tried and convicted for high treason, and beheaded in Whitehall, the seat of the British government.

But the British monarchy had its moment of farcical revenge. Only nine years later, on  January,30, 1658 , Charles I's son, the restored King Charles II, had Oliver Cromwell's body exhumed and posthumously executed, hanged, drawn and quartered in the good old tradition.

Complete list of events:

Wikipedia