Bloody Sunday (1920)

For other uses of "Bloody Sunday", see Bloody Sunday (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Bloody Sunday (1972).

Bloody Sunday remembrance plaque at Croke Park

Bloody Sunday (Irish: Domhnach na Fola) was a day of violence in Dublin on 21 November 1920, during the Irish War of Independence. More than 30 people were killed or fatally wounded.

The day began with an Irish Republican Army (IRA) operation, organised by Michael Collins, to assassinate the "Cairo Gang" – a group of undercover British intelligence agents working and living in Dublin. IRA operatives went to a number of addresses and killed or fatally wounded 15 men. Most were British Army officers, one was a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) sergeant, and two were Auxiliaries responding to the attacks. At least two civilians were killed, but the status of some of those killed is unclear. Five others were wounded.[1] The assassinations sparked panic among the British authorities, and many British agents fled to Dublin Castle for safety.[2]

Later that afternoon, British forces raided a Gaelic football match in Croke Park. British RIC members called "Black and Tans", Auxiliaries, and British soldiers,[3][4][5] were sent to carry out a cordon and search operation. Without warning, the police opened fire on the spectators and players, killing or fatally wounding 14 civilians and wounding at least sixty others.[6][7][8] Three of those killed were children. Some of the police claimed they were fired at, and this was accepted by the British authorities. All other witnesses said the shooting was unprovoked, and a military inquiry concluded it was indiscriminate and excessive. The massacre further turned Irish public opinion against the British authorities.

That evening, two Irish republicans (Dick McKee and Peadar Clancy) who had helped plan the earlier assassinations, along with a civilian (Conor Clune) who happened to be caught with the others, were beaten and shot dead in Dublin Castle by their British captors, who said that they were killed during an escape attempt. Two other IRA members were later convicted and hanged in March 1921 for their part in the assassinations.

Overall, the IRA assassination operation severely damaged British intelligence, while the later reprisals increased support for the IRA at home and abroad.[9]

  1. ^ Leonard 2012, p. 139.
  2. ^ Neligan, David (1968), The Spy in the Castle, MacGibbon & Kee, London, p. 123, SBN 261.62060.6
  3. ^ Eunan O'Halpin & Daithí Ó Corráin. The Dead of the Irish Revolution. Yale University Press, 2020. p. 227. "A large force of RIC 'Black and Tans', military and Auxiliaries descended on the ground".
  4. ^ Leeson 2003, p. 50: "While the soldiers were driving into the city from Collinstown, a force of about one hundred Black and Tans was climbing into the boxes of a dozen Crossley tenders at Phoenix Park. These men drove across Dublin to Beggars Bush. There they linked up with a smaller force of auxiliaries"
  5. ^ Foley 2014, p. 202: "About a hundred Black and Tans had left the Phoenix Park barracks for Beggars Bush where the new force of Auxiliaries, originally bound for Meath, had joined the convoy".
  6. ^ Foley 2014, pp. 202, 224–26.
  7. ^ Leeson 2003, pp. 49–50, 55–58.
  8. ^ Carey & de Búrca 2003, pp. 10–16.
  9. ^ Hopkinson 2004, p. 91.