Page "Free Derry" Paragraph 27

An anti-internment protest organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association ( NICRA ) at Magilligan Camp in January 1972 was met with violence from the 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment ( 1 Para ).

NICRA had organised a march from the Creggan to Derry city centre, in defiance of a ban, on the following Sunday, 30 January 1972.

Both IRA's were asked, and agreed, to suspend operations on that day to ensure the march passed off peacefully.

The army erected barricades around the Free Derry area to prevent marchers from reaching the city centre.

On the day, march organisers turned the march away from the barriers and up to Free Derry Corner, but some youths proceeded to the barrier at William Street and stoned soldiers.

Troops from 1 Para then moved into Free Derry and opened fire, killing thirteen people, all of whom were subsequently found to be unarmed.

A fourteenth shooting victim died four months later in June 1972.

Like the killing of Cusack and Beattie the previous year, Bloody Sunday had the effect of hugely increasing recruitment to the IRA, even among people who previously would have been ' moderates '.