January 30 - Bloody Sunday

Today’s drama  film has a scene that happens on January 30. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

BLOODY SUNDAY            

The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, led by a non-sectarian Protestant parliamentarian Ivan Cooper plans a peaceful march in LondonDerry for civil rights on January 30, 1972 [2:45 to 1:34:35] , while the government has banned all marches.  The British government brings in the Army, which plans if shooting starts to shoot back.  Cooper insists on marching in order to maintain his credibility in the civil rights movement. He communicates through the police that he does not want a confrontation, but this statement is ignored by the army. The march begins. However, British troops appear atop the wall separating Protestant and Catholic areas. Then at a point where the march is supposed to turn right, some of the crowd turn left.  This bring them up against an army barricade. Cooper tries to get the marchers turned around, but then the army opens up with water cannon. Some youths start throwing stones, while the army responds with tear gas. Then the army opens fire hitting 2 people. This infuriates the crowd.   Cooper and his cohorts address the marchers. The army moves forward to arrest the stone throwers. The army start using live ammo, killing twelve and wounding 14.  The army immediately claims its men were fired on. All is chaos at the hospital with relatives of the dead and wounded rubbing elbows with the army. Army troops plant nail bombs on a body. In exactly the opposite effect that the Army’s action was supposed to have, dozens of men join the IRA. Cooper is stunned by what has happened. He makes a speech condemning the army’s action.

A powerful film. This film shows that the violence only begot more violence that lasted for 25 years.  Uses almost a documentary style.

The Troubles: Ireland’s Ordeal 1966-1996 and the Search for Peace by Tim Pat Coogan

(Roberts Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, CO, 1996) at page 134 and the film at 2:50 give the date of the march

Producer - Mark Redhead

Director - Paul Greengrass

Screenplay - Paul Greengrass

Runtime – 1 hour 45 minutes

Released – January 16, 2002     

Starring – James Nesbitt as Ivan Cooper

                 Simon Mann as Col Derek Wilford

                 Tim Pigott-Smith as Major General Ford

                 Nicholas Farrell as Brigadier Maclellan

                 Allan Gildea as Kevin McCorry

                 Gerard Crossan as Eamonn McCann

                 Mary Moulds as Bernadette Devlin