30 January 1972, the day that became known as Bloody Sunday, is remembered as one of the darkest and bloodiest events of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Thirteen people were killed when members of the British Army’s Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights demonstrators in the Bogside, a predominantly Catholic part of Londonderry. The ongoing fight for justice has driven the long process towards prosecutions culminating in the murder charges brought against the paratrooper known as Soldier F.

Author Ian Hernon, who worked as a reporter during The Troubles, draws upon eye-witness accounts and his own recollections from the period to create a compelling account of how the tragedy unfolded. He describes how, in the run-up to the massacre, passions were already boiling over, with the atrocities on both sides, and looks at the activities of 1 Para along with the tactics employed by the IRA. Fifty years after the events of Bloody Sunday, this important book considers the immediate aftermath, including the Widgery ‘whitewash’, the protests and internments, the bombings and tit-for-tat violence, and the long decades of social unrest before an imperfect reconciliation.