Bloody Sunday in Derry

January 30, 1972

British paratroopers opened fire on Catholic civil rights marchers in the Bogside area of Derry, killing thirteen unarmed civilians on a January afternoon. An official inquiry whitewashed the soldiers; another inquiry thirty-eight years later condemned them and called the killings unjustified. The massacre poured recruits into the Provisional IRA and set the Troubles on their bloodiest course.