A few books on the Bloody Sunday bookshelf.

As the news today here in Northern Ireland has been dominated by the release of the Bloody Sunday report I thought it'd be interesting to take a look at some of the books about Bloody Sunday. I'm sure after the events of today there'll be many more books published and peoples stories told.
Peter Pringle and Philip Jacobson investigated the shootings on Bloody Sunday  for The Sunday Times within hours of them happening and wrote the book Those Are Real Bullets: Bloody Sunday, Derry, 1972
The blurb for it reads...

An iconic event in modern Irish history is, for the first time, narrated in directly human terms. Who were the people who marched, who fired from the flats, the barricades, who died? In brilliant narrative form a modern myth is unfolded and revealed fully, and so tells the story of the recent history of the armed struggle in Ireland.

Free Derry Corner, 30 January 1972, site of one of the pivotal events in modern British history. A civil rights march was led into an ambush. Thirteen civilians died, many killed by the British Army. It was the first instance of the British Army firing on its own citizens since the Peterloo Massacre in 1819. It ruined British authority in the province for a generation and was the single identifiable cause of the rejuvenated armed struggle that would last for the rest of the century. Yet it is shrouded in mystery and legend, in deliberate disinformation and deceit, in political interpretation from all sides involved. The events of Bloody Sunday, as it became known are told here as a vivdly dramatic narrative for the first time. Interspersed within the unfolding disaster is the story of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, a complex history revealed by two incisive and expertly informed writers who first researched events in Derry for the Sunday Times in 1972. Bloody Sunday is the most contested, mythologised and symbolic event in modern Irish history. Here, for the first time with the benefit of modern forensic science, new witnesses interviewed and against the background of the Savile report, is the truth of what happened.

There's also a book which would be interesting to read now that the Saville Inquiry is over. A book published by the UK's leading theatre publisher Oberon Books. entitled Bloody Sunday: Scenes from the Saville Inquiry You might remember reading reviews about the play from which the book originates (or is it the other way around), or maybe you were fortunate  to see the play  performed about 5 years ago in Tricycle Theatre. The book/play is a dramatic overview of some of the evidence given to the Saville Inquiry. Will it be updated?



Another book well worth buying, one of many books published about Bloody Sunday by Guildhall Press, is a book entitled Harrowing of the Heart: The Poetry of Bloody Sunday Edited by Julieann Campbell & Tom Herron it is described as an illuminating, often disturbing insight into Derry's darkest day.  It attempts to capture the disbelief and heartbreak felt by a nation through the artistic responses of a few. Compositions by an array of eyewitnesses, relatives and local writers merge seamlessly alongside internationally renowned figures such as Seamus Heaney, Brian Friel, Seamus Deane, Christy Moore, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Thomas Kinsella and Paul Muldoon to create a unique literary perspective of the events of 30 January 1972.
Through this collection, poets, musicians and dramatists from all walks of life share a rich and deeply personal archive, some of which has never been seen before, commemorating the anguish of Bloody Sunday and its devastating legacy on an entire city. I'd keep an eye on the Guildhall Press website for more books about Bloody Sunday. As I said before I'm sure there'll be many more books published and peoples stories told and I'm sure Guildhall Press will be involved in helping people from Derry in this process.