Bloody Sunday (1920)

For other incidents referred to by this name, see Bloody Sunday.

Bloody Sunday of 1920 is a term used to describe a day of violence in Dublin on November 21st 1920, during the Irish War of Independence (1919-21), which led to the deaths of 31 people. The day started with the assassination of 14 British agents or their informants by the Irish Republican Army. British forces retaliated with the massacre of players and spectators attending a Gaelic football match in Croke Park in north Dublin.

Background

Bloody Sunday had its origins in the Irish War of Independence (1919-21), which followed the formation of an unilaterally declared Irish Republic and its parliament, Dáil Éireann. The army of the republic, the Irish Republican Army waged a guerrilla war against the Royal Irish Constabulary, its auxiliary organisations and the British army, who were determined to suppress Irish separatism. In response, the British Government formed its own paramilitary forces, the Black and Tans (a nickname arising from their mixture of uniforms), and the Auxiliary Division (generally known as the Auxiliaries or Auxies). The behaviour of both groups immediately became controversial (one major critic was King George V) for their brutality and violence towards not just IRA suspects and prisoners but Irish people in general. It was the Auxiliaries that were responsible for the Bloody Sunday massacre.

Bloody Sunday

On November 21 1920, Irish Finance Minister and head of the Irish Republican Brotherhood Michael Collins ordered the assassination of British agents, including what was known as the 'Cairo Gang', eighteen high-ranking British Intelligence officers sent to infiltrate and subvert Irish nationalist organisations. Early that morning, 12 or 13 of the agents in question (along with a few innocents or victims of circumstance) were killed by Collins' "Squad" — a number of them in their own homes, and in some cases with their wives in close proximity. Three more were wounded but survived. Collins' plan had been to kill over 50 British intelligence officers and infomers, but not all the IRA assassins carried out the task successfully. Two Auxiliaries were also killed as the Squad made their escape. Only one Squad member was captured, Frank Teeling, and he managed to quickly escape from gaol. This action severely crippled British intelligence in Ireland, causing the rest of the gang and many other spies to flee for Dublin Castle, and caused consternation in the British administration.

The Dublin Gaelic football team was scheduled to play the Tipperary team later the same day in Croke Park, the Gaelic Athletic Association's major football ground. One of the British auxiliaries involved in 'Bloody Sunday' recalled that they tossed a coin over whether they would go on a killing spree in Croke Park or loot Sackville Street (Dublin's main street, now called O'Connell Street) instead.

Despite the general unease in Dublin as news broke of the killings, a war-weary populace continued with life. Approximately 15,000 spectators went to Croke Park for the football match. However within minutes of the start of the game, an aeroplane flew over the ground and a red flare was shot from the cockpit. Auxiliaries poured into the ground while an officer on top of the wall fired a revolver shot. They began shooting into the crowd from the pitch, while another fired a machine-gun from the entrance. The crowd began to rush away from the gunfire. Two football players, Michael Hogan and Jim Egan, were shot; Hogan died from his injuries. A Wexford man who attempted to whisper the Act of Contrition into the dying Hogan's ear was also shot dead. In all, 13 people were killed and 65 injured.

The casualties included Jeannie Boyle, who had gone to the match with her fiancée and was due to be married five days later, and John Scott, who was fourteen, and so mutilated that it was initially thought that he had been savagely bayoneted. The youngest victims were aged 10 and 11.

The actions of the Auxiliaries, like many of their actions and those of the Black and Tans, were "officially" unauthorised and were greeted with public horror by the Dublin Castle-based British authorities. In an effort to cover up the nature of the behaviour by Crown forces, a press release was issued which claimed:

A number of men came to Dublin on Saturday under the guise of asking to attend a football match between Tipperary and Dublin. But their real intention was to take part in the series of murderous outrages which took place in Dublin that morning. Learning on Saturday that a number of these gunmen were present in Croke Park, the crown forces went to raid the field. It was the original intention that an officer would go to the centre of the field and speaking from a megaphone, invite the assassins to come forward. But on their approach, armed pickets gave warning. Shots were fired to warn the wanted men, who caused a stampede and escaped in the confusion.

The Times, a Unionist publication, ridiculed Dublin Castle's version of events, as did a British Labour Party delegation visiting Ireland at the time.

Later that day, two high-ranking IRA officers, Dick McKee and Peadar Clancy, who had helped plan the killings of the British agents, and an uninvolved civilian friend Conor Clune, a nephew of Archbishop Clune of Perth, Australia, were arrested. They were brought to Dublin Castle, tortured and "shot while trying to escape". The official story was that because there was no room in the cells they were placed in a guardroom containing arms, and were killed while making a getaway.

Aftermath

The behaviour of the Auxiliaries and the Black and Tans during the Irish War of Independence, much of it secretly sanctioned, helped turn the Irish public against the Crown. Some British politicians and the King made no secret of their horror at the behaviour of Crown forces. The mass murder of men, women and children, both spectators and football players, made international headlines, damaging British credibility.

A combination of the loss of the Cairo Gang, which devastated British Intelligence in Ireland, and the public relations disaster that was Bloody Sunday severely damaged the cause of British rule in Ireland and increased support for the republican government under Eamon de Valera. The events of Bloody Sunday have survived in public memory. The Gaelic Athletic Association named one of the stands in Croke Park the 'Hogan Stand' in memory of Michael Hogan, the murdered football player.

James "Skankers" Ryan, who had informed on Clancy and McKee, was shot dead by the IRA in February 1921.

Misconceptions

The film Michael Collins shows an armoured car driving onto the pitch. This did not happen.
It is often though that two players were killed when accounts say two were shot. Hogan and Egan were both hit by bullets, but Egan survived.

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Background

Bloody Sunday

Aftermath

Misconceptions

Further reading