Those Are Real Bullets: Bloody Sunday, Derry, 1972

by Peter Pringle and Philip Jacobson

Book Overview

On January 30, 1972, British paratroopers opened fire on unarmed Irish Catholic demonstrators in Derry, killing thirteen and wounding another fourteen. Five were shot in the back. A major turning... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802116809
• ISBN13: 9780802116802
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: Grove/Atlantic
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Bloody Sunday,1972

This book is a good source for the topic of Bloody Sunday. It is from a journalist view of the tragic days of Blooy Sunday. Such events are still talked about in the British Parliment and the Saville Inquiry is reviewing the then handling of the Bloody Sunday event. If you've never read anything about the "Troubles", you will become passionately amazed regarding the events following up to Bloody Sunday.

Bloody Sunday, Bullet by Bullet

In terms of sheer body counts, Bloody Sunday was not the worst day of the Troubles, as a number of IRA and Loyalist atrocities were to kill more people. However, the negative impact of Bloody Sunday on the course of the Troubles was incalculable. The assault on a civil rights march of Derry Catholics by the Parachute Regiment was intended to round up "Derry young hooligans," with the expectation of a few exemplary Catholic casualties, while reasserting the rule of English law in the "no-go" Catholic ghetto of the Bogside. Instead, 13 unarmed youths and middle-aged men were killed, and the British Army found itself in an operational, logistical, and public relations disaster. Political means toward achieving reform in Northern Ireland were discredited for the next 25 years, and 1972 was to become the bloodiest year of the Troubles. When the British Army arrived in the North in the 60's, they were often welcomed by Catholics as protectors from Protestant pogroms; after Bloody Sunday, every British soldier in Northern Ireland was to lead the miserable and paranoid existence of an unloved army of occupation, a constant target of unseen bombers and snipers.The strength of Pringle and Jacobson's book is in its detail, stomach-churning at times. Although their style is journalistic and their prose plain, I supposed it must be effective, as I frequently found my eyes welling up with tears of rage. Most accounts of Bloody Sunday focus on the out-of-control nature of the Paras, but Pringle and Jacobson appropriately detail the command failures that led to the tragedy: the ill-conceived use of an elite, lethally-armed regiment to perform a police function; the decision to place civilians at risk; the lack of any overall political strategy to deal with the North; the failure of radio communications that placed the Paras beyond control of headquarters.Aside from the political significance of Bloody Sunday, the drama of that day illuminates human nature at its best and worst: the teenaged first aid worker Eibhlin Lafferty, preventing a rabid soldier from finishing off a wounded man, asking him, "Are you mad?"; Barney McGuigan, waving a handkerchief to come to the aid of the dying Paddy Doherty, saying "They'll not shoot me" moments before his head was blown apart; Alex Nash, grievously injured running toward his dying son, Willie; the priests who braved gunfire to administer the last rites; the hapless Catholic businessman McKinney, stuck in the march on his way back from meeting an associate, shot by the army with his hands up.I would have given the book 5 stars, but the account of the political aftermath of Bloody Sunday is perfunctory, and more follow-up on some of the participants would have been interesting. What happened to Alana Burke, who apparently had a spinal injury after been struck by a Saracen? What happened to the young soccer player whose leg was shattered by a bullet? How did the tragedy affect the lives of those involved in years to come? The

Highly Detailed and Definitive Work on this Awful Incident

Pringle and Jacobsen, the reporters who broke through the governmental code of silence to get to the truth behind Bloody Sunday, present a highly detailed and thoroughly engrossing report of the events of January 30, 1972, where 13 unarmed Catholic protesters were shot dead by British paratroopers. The authors provide an unflinching look at the chaos and horrifying events of that awful day. They also detail the events leading up to the incident, and pull no punches in looking at the causes and fallout from the indident. This is a must read for anyone interested in the events currently shaping Northern Ireland.

An excellent book on the 'Troubles'

Everything considered, this book does a good job conveying the Irish Catholic point-of-view regarding the Bloody Sunday Massacre which occurred in Derry in 1972. In addition to providing good details about the victims of the massacre, as well as their families, the book also gives a lot of information relating to the escalation of hostilities which led to the massacre.The only drawback of the book is that some knowledge of the "Troubles" is assumed. I consider myself someone knowledgable regarding the conflict there, and yet I still had to sometimes look something up in other sources. Regardless, you will enjoy this book and it will undoubtedly add to your knowledge of the conflict in Northern Ireland and one of its most infamous incidents.

Worthy read....

With so many great titles about the "Troubles" this book indeed stands out. I covers Bloody Sunday, the people involved, and the events that lead up to the massacre. At first the book is confusing with the Authors jumping from person to person, and discussing the many factions and in-fighting between the many factions of the movement. So, if you are a casual reader on the subject, you might find the book confusing at first (I did and I read alot about the troubles). The book is told from the Irish point of veiw, which covers the real sorrow of this massacre.