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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Bloody Sunday
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The term used for two disastrous Sundays in British history when political demonstrations ended with the crowd being fired on by troops. On 13 November 1887 a socialist demonstration in Trafalgar Square ended with two dead. On 30 January 1972, in Londonderry in Northern Ireland, 13 died after paratroops of the British army opened fire on a banned civil rights march. There were provocative and stone-throwing groups among the marchers, but no proof has been found for the army's assertion that someone on the march opened fire or even that any were armed.
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The subsequent report by Lord Widgery (April 1972) was widely regarded as a whitewash; it repeated the claim that IRA marchers had fired as many shots as the army and suggested only that the army's response had 'bordered on the reckless'. The disaster caused a sharp deterioration in community relations in *Northern Ireland, and led to a rise in terrorist violence and the imposition of direct rule from Westminster.
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