Irish memory of the day might be tinged with some regret had it not been for the British forces’ reaction Agents could be seen over the following days under military escort, moving into Dublin Castle, away from hostile eyes and hidden revolvers. The operation was ugly, but as an act of terror – that is to frighten the British administration and those who collaborated with it, it had no equal. By the time the capital had woken up, 14 people were dead, eight of them British agents, two Auxiliaries the rest either bystanders or civilians informers. Early on the morning of Sunday, November 21, 1920, teams of killers from Collins’ “Squad” and the IRA Dublin Brigade, visited over a dozen private addresses in the south of the city. Michael Collins had been alarmed by the growth of British Intelligence in the Dublin, and with hair-raising ruthlessness, drew up a list to wipe it out. In 1920, however the restraints in violence were removed to a much greater degree – belligerents on both sides set out to kill. Those who did die were killed somewhat by mistake, in over zealous beatings. In 1913, there were limits on the violence, sticks, batons and hurleys were used in fighting, but guns hardly ever. We can immediately see the difference between even a bitter industrial dispute and an armed nationalist conflict in a comparison of 19. Of the four incidents, this was the bloodiest, with at least 31 deaths. Many more people will be aware of the next Bloody Sunday, which happened during the Irish War of Independence in November 1920. Dublin 1920 RIC, Auxiliaries and a DMP policeman – the RIC and Auxiliaries carried out the Croke Park shootings. Over 3,000 people, led by union marching bands, attended Byrne’s funeral as a mark of defiance. One can still see on Siptu banners the names of the “martyrs”, James Nolan and James Byrne, beaten to death by the police over that weekend. In the labour tradition, this is “their own” Bloody Sunday. Several hundred people were injured and there was ferocious rioting all over working class districts of Dublin that night and over the following days between trade unionists and the police. Most of those injured were not in fact trade unionists, who were at a rally elsewhere in the city, but mere bystanders –showing how indiscriminate the police action was. On August 31, the Dublin Metropolitan Police and RIC baton-charged a crowd on O’Connell Street, Dublin, who were gathered to hear a speech by the fiery trade union leader Jim Larkin. The first came in the Lockout, the great industrial dispute of 1913.

Dublin 1913 The DMP baton charge on O’Connell Street It may surprise some readers to learn that there were not two, but four ‘Bloody Sundays’ in 20th century Irish History. In the wake of the Saville Report on the events in Derry in 1972, John Dorney looks at the place of “Bloody Sundays” in 20th century Irish History.

Irish serenity symbol