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Bloody Sunday
- Truths, Lies, & the Saville Inquiry
- Narrated by: Michael Fenton Stevens
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
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Summary
Bloody Sunday was the worst massacre of British citizens by British troops since Peterloo in 1819 - a potent distillation of the rage and anguish of a bitter conflict that spanned decades and claimed three and a half thousand lives.
In 2002, when the Saville Inquiry transferred from Derry to London, author Douglas Murray began attending daily to hear at firsthand the testimony of the soldiers and members of the IRA who had been there that dreadful day. What he discovered was a devastating story of ordinary people thrown into the most terrible of situations, a story not only more straightforward than the British army would like to admit, but more complex than the IRA has always claimed.
This book is not solely about a shocking event or a process of justice; it is about the efforts of a group of people to arrive at truth and a country’s attempt - three decades on - at painful and perhaps incomplete reconciliation.
Douglas Murray is a best-selling author and award-winning political journalist based in London. From 2007 to 2011 he was the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion in London. He is now a Senior Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. Read by Michael Fenton Stevens (Last Trains, MI9, Whisper Wings, The Science of the Discworld, Long Earth, Long War, David Jason: Autobiography, Spitting Image, KYTV)
WARNING - this audiobook contains some strong language and descriptions of violence & injuries.
What listeners say about Bloody Sunday
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- Kindle Customer
- 05-04-20
Very Good
Informative, well researched and well written, a solid overview of the events of that day.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 26-09-21
Very revealing
Great insight into what happened on that fateful day. The narration is excellent. Captivating.
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1 person found this helpful
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- dffd salford
- 21-01-24
THE TRUTH AT LONG LAST
This book was sublimely written with facts as opposed to bias. What baffles me is the united kingdom 🇬🇧 is forever fighting battles against enemies who don’t wear uniforms and sneak around amongst normal civilians. Yet we are the only nation that appears to adhere to the Geneva Convention , whilst coming under attack from almost always a cowardly enemy. One Para are an elite fighting machine who have been painstakingly trained to defend their Homeland and kill anyone who threatens it or them, however the moment they are forced to react and do what they have been trained to do they are vilified by the Government that trained them and ostracised by some members of the public who believe the word of Terrorists before the word of a fully trained British soldier who is risking his life so that we can sleep safely at nighttime. My friend who is almost 70 years old has been hounded most of his adult life by people who couldn’t fight sleep let alone a war. Lawyers making fortunes at OUR SOLDIERS EXPENSE. Shame on England and shame on Tony Blair, the dirty shithouse 🤬😡🤬👊
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5 people found this helpful
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- Carl McC
- 09-03-21
As close to the truth as you'll get
An interesting and detailed account of Bloody Sunday. As close to the truth as you will get. Douglas formulates the events, characters and actions in an accurate and engaging way.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 19-02-21
Irish names butchered worse than Catholics of NI
Good book overall, really enjoy Douglas Murray as an author. Mostly balanced, however much criticism of the IRA without mention of the Unionist Paramilitaries nor the collusion between the British military or the largely unionist Police force and the Unionist gangs. This made the scenario seem like it was the IRA vs Soldiers who were there to “protect” the catholic population... protect from whom was never fleshed out. Would also have been nice if the narrator (voice actor) did the bare minimum to research the pronunciation of any of the Irish names, they were utterly butchered unfortunately.
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9 people found this helpful
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- S. Morris
- 09-07-21
Enlightening
I wasn't sure whether to-purchase this book. My fear was that it would be rather dry and not that interesting. however, I found I was fascinated with the information presented here. Douglas Murray has done a good job of boiling down the thousands of pages of evidence into something digestible. Having never read a book that covers a lengthy government instituted enquiry, I had no real idea what to expect. The main testimonials are in the form of question and answer sessions, just like a regular court case. however, where an official enquiry differs is, or at least the Saville one, is how utterly impotent the enquiry was in some cases to seek answers from key participants. To me, it seemed like the more important to the enquiry you were, the more evasive you could be.
Prime examples of this unwillingness and downright adversarial obstructionism has to be the included sections in the book dealing with the questioning of former British Prime Minister, Edward heath and
the former IRA member, Martin McGuinness. Both simply refused to answer many of the more important questions put to them and in the case of McGuinness, even mocked and exhibited sarcasm toward the lawyers questioning him. To me, it was farcical to the extreme and made me wonder why more stick and less carrot wasn't used to elicit truthful responses from these men.
Further, it seemed to me that every soldier questioned in the enquiry did their best to avoid answering pointed questions with the oft used reason given as memory loss. Thirty years is a long time and I understand that some details will be lost in the events, even shortly afterwards, but it seemed to me that most people were simply stonewalling at best and outright lying at worst. it's amazing to see question after question side stepped, evaded or otherwise unanswered while under oath. Indeed, it seemed to me that conclusions could only be drawn based on what the witnesses didn't say, the things they worked very hard at not divulging.
Bloody Sunday has been one of those awful events in a troubled Northern Ireland history. To me, the only tangible thing achieved by the end of the twelve year long and very costly enquiry was an official apology from the British government. it was clear to the ordinary man in the street that the British soldiers did lose fire discipline, a polite way of saying they ran amok in some cases. Whether this was due to a fear/threat reaction or an innate disregard for life in some of the soldiers, I'm not sure. Based on the behaviour of some of the worst offenders afterward, I'd say it was the latter. Either way, the behaviour of the soldiers that day was the overriding reason. However, one thing that did surprise me and is a noteworthy inclusion in the summing up, is the participation of the IRA that day. A participation that the IRA would not want widely known about then as well as now.
For those who might be far more familiar with the events of that terrible day and are wondering if they really need to bother with such a book, I'd urge you give this a read, if for nothing else than to read the actual words of many of those involved as well as the human carnage caused. The stories of heroes and villains that day and the impact felt by those events in a troubled community.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kev
- 11-05-22
Poor pronunciation
A well written book let down by the readers terrible pronunciation of Irish names and words. The readers inability to pronounce words such as "Provo", place names in Derry or the names of the main characters let's down what should be an enthralling listen.
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2 people found this helpful
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- W. Kirkpatrick
- 04-08-23
Listen for a balanced accurate view
Having grown up in N Ireland it was easy to take sides. This account brings balance. Such a terrible event was probably inevitable. I hope we can learn from it and avoid any form of repetition.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Chris Casey
- 31-08-21
COMPLEXITY AND CATASTROPHE
The culmination of history, nationalism, passion and deception- Bloody Sunday, in all it's hideous aspects, throws up a turbid portrayal of conflicting interests. Murray walks a fine line well, although I am still a but uneasy about the outcome of Lord Saville 's findings and attributions. A good contribution to the ongoing debate.
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- Mr Duane Williams
- 03-11-23
Simply superb
A throughly enthralling book that gives relevance and insight into the sad and complex events which took place on day.
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