<p>"Bloody Sunday" was a turning point in three decades of violence in Northern Ireland known as the "Troubles".</p>.<p>On Sunday January 30, 1972, British paratroopers shot dead 13 Catholic demonstrators in the province's second city, Londonderry.</p>.<p>Here is how events unfolded:</p>.<p>The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) organised an anti-internment march to take place that day in the city Catholics call Derry.</p>.<p>They were angry at the increasing internment without trial of Catholic nationalists since the previous August.</p>.<p>The march was illegal. Northern Ireland's Protestant authorities had declared a year-long ban on all marches amid spiralling unrest since civil rights protesters began demanding an end to voting, housing and job discrimination against the minority Catholic community in 1968.</p>.<p>Nevertheless, at least 15,000 people joined the march, which set off in a carnival-like mood from the Creggan Estate, a few kilometres from the city centre, through the Catholic Bogside district to Guildhall Square.</p>.<p>Crack troops from the British 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment, drafted in that day, were waiting at barricades to stop the march reaching the city centre.</p>.<p>A section of the crowd turned into William Street and youths began throwing stones at a British army barricade.</p>.<p>Troops were ordered to begin arrests and armoured cars drove into the crowd.</p>.<p>Around 4:10 pm soldiers started firing.</p>.<p>Within about 10 minutes 13 people were dead and a further 15 injured. Six of the dead were aged 17.</p>.<p>The troops claimed to have come under sustained gunfire as well as attacks with nail bombs. They said they aimed away from the demonstrators.</p>.<p>Their claims, largely accepted in the official report by senior English judge John Widgery, published later that year, were not backed up by independent accounts.</p>.<p>No soldiers were injured in the operation and no guns or bombs recovered.</p>.<p>The victims' families derided the report as a "whitewash".</p>.<p>The killings proved a boon to the nascent Provisional Irish Republican Army, fighting for Northern Ireland's reunification with Ireland, whose ranks swelled with new recruits.</p>.<p>On February 2, an angry crowd set fire to the British embassy in Dublin.</p>.<p>On March 24, London suspended the Protestant-dominated Northern Ireland provincial government, leading to decades of direct rule from the British capital.</p>.<p>In June 2010 a new report published after a 12-year investigation said British troops fired first and had given misleading accounts of what happened.</p>.<p>The report by senior British judge Mark Saville concluded that none of the victims was armed, soldiers gave no warnings before opening fire and the shootings were a "catastrophe" for Northern Ireland and led to increased violence.</p>.<p>Following the report then British prime minister David Cameron apologised for the killings, saying: "There is no doubt... what happened on 'Bloody Sunday' was both unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong."</p>.<p>On March 14, 2018 an ex-paratrooper, known only as Soldier F, was charged with murdering two people and the attempted murder of four others.</p>.<p>But the charges were dropped in July 2021 after a backlash by MPs from Britain's ruling Conservative Party.</p>.<p>"Bloody Sunday", immortalised by a song by Irish rock group U2, was one of the darkest episodes in the conflict between Northern Ireland's Catholic nationalists -- who want a united Ireland -- and Protestant unionists loyal to Britain.</p>.<p><strong>Watch latest videos by DH here:</strong></p>
<p>"Bloody Sunday" was a turning point in three decades of violence in Northern Ireland known as the "Troubles".</p>.<p>On Sunday January 30, 1972, British paratroopers shot dead 13 Catholic demonstrators in the province's second city, Londonderry.</p>.<p>Here is how events unfolded:</p>.<p>The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) organised an anti-internment march to take place that day in the city Catholics call Derry.</p>.<p>They were angry at the increasing internment without trial of Catholic nationalists since the previous August.</p>.<p>The march was illegal. Northern Ireland's Protestant authorities had declared a year-long ban on all marches amid spiralling unrest since civil rights protesters began demanding an end to voting, housing and job discrimination against the minority Catholic community in 1968.</p>.<p>Nevertheless, at least 15,000 people joined the march, which set off in a carnival-like mood from the Creggan Estate, a few kilometres from the city centre, through the Catholic Bogside district to Guildhall Square.</p>.<p>Crack troops from the British 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment, drafted in that day, were waiting at barricades to stop the march reaching the city centre.</p>.<p>A section of the crowd turned into William Street and youths began throwing stones at a British army barricade.</p>.<p>Troops were ordered to begin arrests and armoured cars drove into the crowd.</p>.<p>Around 4:10 pm soldiers started firing.</p>.<p>Within about 10 minutes 13 people were dead and a further 15 injured. Six of the dead were aged 17.</p>.<p>The troops claimed to have come under sustained gunfire as well as attacks with nail bombs. They said they aimed away from the demonstrators.</p>.<p>Their claims, largely accepted in the official report by senior English judge John Widgery, published later that year, were not backed up by independent accounts.</p>.<p>No soldiers were injured in the operation and no guns or bombs recovered.</p>.<p>The victims' families derided the report as a "whitewash".</p>.<p>The killings proved a boon to the nascent Provisional Irish Republican Army, fighting for Northern Ireland's reunification with Ireland, whose ranks swelled with new recruits.</p>.<p>On February 2, an angry crowd set fire to the British embassy in Dublin.</p>.<p>On March 24, London suspended the Protestant-dominated Northern Ireland provincial government, leading to decades of direct rule from the British capital.</p>.<p>In June 2010 a new report published after a 12-year investigation said British troops fired first and had given misleading accounts of what happened.</p>.<p>The report by senior British judge Mark Saville concluded that none of the victims was armed, soldiers gave no warnings before opening fire and the shootings were a "catastrophe" for Northern Ireland and led to increased violence.</p>.<p>Following the report then British prime minister David Cameron apologised for the killings, saying: "There is no doubt... what happened on 'Bloody Sunday' was both unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong."</p>.<p>On March 14, 2018 an ex-paratrooper, known only as Soldier F, was charged with murdering two people and the attempted murder of four others.</p>.<p>But the charges were dropped in July 2021 after a backlash by MPs from Britain's ruling Conservative Party.</p>.<p>"Bloody Sunday", immortalised by a song by Irish rock group U2, was one of the darkest episodes in the conflict between Northern Ireland's Catholic nationalists -- who want a united Ireland -- and Protestant unionists loyal to Britain.</p>.<p><strong>Watch latest videos by DH here:</strong></p>