Sunday, Bloody Sunday

 „I can’t believe the news today
Oh I can’t close my eyes and make it go away
how long, how long must we sing this song?...“

I am sure most of you know these lyrics. They belong to the famous song „Sunday, Bloody Sunday“ by U2. When I first heard this song, it did not have any meaning to me – I just found it was a really catchy song. However, after having learnt about the song’s background in my English class at university, it will never sound the same to me. That is why I would like to make you familiar with the reason why “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” was written; with the sad story that its lyrics tell.  

The song is about Sunday, January 13^th 1972. The period from the late 1960s until the end of the 20^th century was a time of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland. This conflict is also known as The Troubles. Basically, the reason for this conflict were tensions between the protestant and catholic inhabitants of Northern Ireland. While the protestant majority of NI mainly wanted it to remain part of the United Kingdom, the Catholic minority wanted NI to become part of the Republic of Ireland. This is why Northern Irish Protestants were also called unionists or loyalists and the Catholics, on the other hand, were called nationalists or republicans.  

In 1968, Northern Ireland had been ruled by a majority of unionists for over fifty years. The parliament’s attempts to solve social and political problems, such as institutional discrimination against Catholics, were too slow for nationalists and too quick for many unionists. This gave rise to violence between the two groups.

On  Sunday, January 13^th 1972 a peaceful Civil Rights March, that was part of a campaign for equality between Protestants and Catholics, was organized in Derry. Since the protestors were redirected by the British Army, they could not reach their original destination. However, some teenagers tried to get there nevertheless and on their way they threw stones at the police. The police started using water cannons, tear-gas and rubber balls against the rioters, but soon the situation got out of hand and the Parachute Regiment started firing against the crowd. As a result, 13 unarmed civilians were killed. 

Understandably, the Irish population was shocked facing such violence. As a consequence of the events of “bloody Sunday”, the nationalist’s resentment and  hostility towards the Army grew and the conflict between the two Northern Irish communities deteriorated. 

The Troubles are generally seen as having ended with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. 


Maybe now you see why this song gives me chills every time I hear it. The sad truth is that the starting lines of “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” contain so much truth. Every day the news tell us about shootings, killings, fights or terrorist attacks. And sadly, Bono is also right by saying we become immune to all of this. Since we read about new atrocities every day, we  start looking away.

What makes such conflicts even worse is when they are seemingly fought over religion. I really find it terrible and very sad that people in power often use religion to divide people. Because after all, you don’t have to be a genius to understand that all religions have one basic idea in common - compassion. Sadly, most of the events we hear about on the news do not have anything to do with this principle.