Bloody Sunday (1921) facts for kids

Bloody Sunday or Belfast's Bloody Sunday was a day of violence in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 10 July 1921, during the Irish War of Independence. The violence erupted one day before a truce began, which ended the war in most of Ireland. With the truce nearing, police launched a raid against republicans, but were ambushed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and an officer was killed. In retaliation, Protestant loyalists attacked Catholic enclaves in west Belfast, burning homes and businesses. This sparked rioting and gun battles between Protestants and Catholics, including paramilitaries. There were also gun battles between republicans/nationalists and the police, and some police patrols fired indiscriminately at Catholic civilians. Seventeen people were killed or fatally wounded on 10 July, and a further three were killed or fatally wounded before the truce began at noon on 11 July. At least 100 people were wounded. About 200 houses were destroyed or badly damaged, most of them Catholic homes, leaving 1,000 people homeless. See: The Troubles in Northern Ireland (1920–1922).

Background

Belfast saw almost 500 people killed from 1920 to 1922 in political and sectarian violence related to the Irish War of Independence. While most of Ireland had a Catholic and Irish nationalist majority who wanted independence, the north-east had a Protestant and Unionist majority who wanted to maintain ties to Britain. Sectarian violence started in the city of Derry in April 1920 with gun battltes and rioting continuing into May. Derry saw intense violence breaking out in the city on 18 June which continued for a week. At least nineteen people were killed or fatally wounded during this time: 14 Catholics and five Protestants. Violence broke out in Belfast on 21 July 1920, when Protestant Loyalists drove 8,000 "disloyal" co-workers from their jobs in the Belfast shipyards, mostly Catholics and some Protestant labour activists. The violence was partly in reaction to increasing Irish Republican Army (IRA) attacks and was fuelled by rhetoric from Unionist politicians. More than 50 people were killed in rioting between Protestants and Catholics. In nearby Lisburn, Banbridge and Dromore loyalists burnt hundreds of Catholic businesses and homes.

There was sporadic violence in Belfast over the following year. In May 1921, Ireland was partitioned under British law, creating Northern Ireland as a self-governing territory of the United Kingdom, with Belfast as its capital. Its borders were drawn to give it a Protestant majority. Its new reserve police force, the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC), was almost wholly Protestant and some of its members carried out reprisal attacks on Catholics.

Violence increased in summer 1921. At the time, representatives of the self-declared Irish Republic and the British government were negotiating a truce to end the war. On 10 June, IRA volunteers shot three Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officers on Belfast's Falls Road, fatally wounding Constable James Glover. He had been targeted because the IRA suspected him of being part of a group of police involved in sectarian killings of Catholics. This attack sparked three days of loyalist violence, during which at least 14 people were killed, including three Catholics who were taken from their homes and killed by uniformed police. Sporadic violence continued in the city over the next month. On 8 July, police attempted to carry out searches in the Catholic enclave of Carrick Hill. However, they were confronted by about 15 IRA volunteers, leading to an hour-long firefight.

Aftermath

A strict curfew was enforced in Belfast after the violence. On 11 July, the Commandant of the IRA's 2nd Northern Division, Eoin O'Duffy, was sent to Belfast by the organization's leadership in Dublin to liaise with the British authorities there and try to maintain the truce. He said, "I found the city in a veritable state of war. The peal of rifles could be heard on all sides, frenzied mobs at every street corner, terror-stricken people rushing for their lives, and ambulances carrying the dead and dying to hospitals." There were no serious disturbances during the Orange Order's yearly 12 July marches, but sporadic violence resumed the following day, and by the end of the week 28 people had been killed or fatally wounded in Belfast.

O'Duffy set up headquarters in St Mary's Hall in Belfast city centre and made contact with British forces and the press. With the tacit consent of the RIC, he organized IRA patrols in Catholic areas to try to restore order and announced that IRA action would cease except in self-defence. Both Protestants and Catholics saw the truce as a victory for republicans. Protestant unionists "were particularly appalled by the sight of policemen and soldiers meeting IRA officers on a semi-official basis". While the truce ended fighting in most of Ireland, communal violence soon resumed in Belfast. IRA members later recalled, "The Truce was not observed by either side in the north", while McCorley said the truce in Belfast "lasted six hours only".

The violence of the period in Belfast was cyclical, and the events of July 1921 were followed by a lull until a three-day period starting on 29 August, when another 20 people died in the west and north of the city.