Page "Bloody Sunday (1972)" Paragraph 5

While initially welcomed by the Catholics as a neutral force compared to the RUC, relations between the nationalists and the Army soon deteriorated.

On 8 July 1971 two rioters, Seamus Cusack and Desmond Beattie, were shot dead in the Bogside by soldiers in disputed circumstances.

Soldiers claimed the pair were armed, which was denied by local people, and moderate nationalists including John Hume and Gerry Fitt walked out of the Parliament of Northern Ireland in protest.

A British Army memorandum states that as a result of this the situation " changed overnight ", with the Provisional IRA's campaign in the city beginning at that time after previously being regarded as " quiescent ".