Joseph Friel (20) was shot and wounded as he tried to make his way home. Daniel Gillespie (32) was hit by a bullet in the head and fell unconscious. Schoolboy Michael Quinn (17) was wounded by a bullet in the shoulder that exited through his face as he tried to escape the soldiers’ advance. William McKinney (27) was then shot in the back and killed as he tried to help the wounded, the same bullet wounding Joe Mahon (16).
Nearby, Patsy O’Donnell (41) was wounded as he threw himself across a woman to protect her from firing. At the alleyway entrance to Abbey Park, Jim Wray (22) was on the ground and already wounded by the first burst of fire when he was shot again in the back at close range.
A former para identified only as Soldier F was charged in 2019 with the murder of Wray and McKinney and the attempted murder of O’Donnell, Friel, Quinn and Mahon. The prosecution case was halted last year, with families and wounded currently awaiting a High Court decision on the case against F as well as other soldiers. As it stands, Soldier F remains the only British serviceman to have been charged with murder over Bloody Sunday.
Joe Friel: The crowd was squealing, crying, roaring and shouting. I saw sheer unadulterated terror on people’s faces. I froze momentarily, then ran back towards the Rossville Flats to home. There were so many people packed into the doorway I couldn’t get in. I could still hear shots being fired, getting louder. There was no pattern to the shots, the lulls between bursts were only a matter of seconds. There was complete chaos on Rossville Street. People were running in every direction, bumping into each other. Realising I’d not be able to take cover in the flats, I crossed Rossville Street to Glenfada Park in sheer fear and have a clear memory of people falling to my right, to the north.
Danny Gillespie: I saw a group of about eight people coming into Glenfada Park North from the entrance by the rubble barricade. Some were carrying a youth I know as Michael Kelly away. He was obviously dead. There were people running about and I heard more shooting. I began to run towards Rossville Street to try to get away. I heard a sharp ‘crack’ and I knew that I had been hit. I fell forwards with my face down on the tarmac. My hat had been blown off. I could feel a stinging and burning sensation and I thought that I had lost the top of my head. Everything went black.
Denis Bradley [formerly Father Bradley, curate at Long Tower Parish]: I hadn’t seen paratroopers before. They were different looking, bigger, tougher and taller, more physical and aggressive. They didn’t talk to you like other soldiers. Their blackened faces struck me as odd as it was daytime. I had seen soldiers with blackened faces, but only during night operations. I realised then that I was in the middle of a war for the first time despite being used to the presence of soldiers before. I remember at around this point another soldier starting firing from the hip or waist in a southerly direction from the entrance to the Glenfada Park North car park at the east. I remember being horrified.
Joe Friel: I ran along Glenfada Park. People were running with me to get out. Everyone was panicking. I could see soldiers about five or six feet into Glenfada, coming from the north-eastern corner. The soldier in front was moving forward at no great pace and was firing. He had his gun in front of him just above waist height and was moving it from side to side – not swinging it, just moving it a few inches from left to right. The other soldiers weren’t firing their weapons. I heard three shots – bang, bang, bang. I felt a slight blow to my body no harder than a tap by a couple of fingers. My first thought was that I had been hit by a rubber bullet, I couldn’t take in that I had been shot. I looked down and could see blood. Within a second or two, a big gush of blood came out of my mouth. I shouted, “I’m shot, I’m shot!”
Joe Mahon, a civil rights marcher, aged 16: As we ran up towards Abbey Park, they just started firing. The only one I saw firing at that time was holding the gun at his hip and just firing into the crowd. Next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground. Then I heard a voice behind me, who I later found out was William McKinney, and he just said to me, “I’m hit, son, I’m hit!” He was lying right behind me and I could see another pair of feet nearby too.
Denis Bradley: The soldier was just shooting, not particularly at anyone. The angle of fire seemed to me slightly over people’s heads. I didn’t think the soldier had lost his head. I didn’t think he was going to shoot me. He didn’t say anything to me. One of the other soldiers told me to “get along”.
Patsy O’Donnell: I saw soldiers and, just at the corner, there was a woman crouching behind the fence. I saw a soldier take aim in my direction and I threw myself on top of her and behind the fence as low as possible. I heard the crack on the wall behind me and looking round I saw a hole in the wall, and I saw the top of my coat torn and I realised there was something wrong with me. I said to the woman, “I’m hit”. We rolled around the corner to the yard and sat there with Fr Bradley and others, and I realised then I had been shot in the shoulder.
Danny Gillespie: I regained my senses. Two young boys were asking me if I was alright and were helping me to my feet. The ground was lifting around me from the shots. The tall boy on my left was shot and I heard him groan. He fell on top of me and pushed me back on to the ground. He was lying over my legs and was still. I rolled to my left, so he fell off me, and pulled my feet out from underneath him and got up. I ran west towards the alleyway leading to Abbey Park. There was jelly-like blood running across my face and into my eyes. I stumbled up the shallow steps and fell twice running up them. My legs were like jelly and I was shaking.
It’s insanity that we learn everything there is to know about Henry the 8th in history lessons. We learn how he killed each of his wives for some reason. We learn about how the UK was fucking great in both World Wars and saved the world. Ireland is not once mentioned. British history lessons don’t dwell on mistakes or embarrassment, or just outright inhumanity.
Britain’s role in Ireland is incomphrensible to me. I went to the Museum of Free Derry with a most awful hangover, having had very many drinks with some friendly people from Derry the night before. Coming from England, I’m amazed at the warm welcome I had.
I can’t condone the IRA at the time, but I can’t say I wouldn’t be motivated to (re)act myself.
Can you imagine if the army shot dozens of unarmed protesters somewhere in England? Really says something about what the British state thinks of Irish people that they can openly massacre them with impunity like this.
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[Irish Independent: ‘I will never forget the soldier’s face’: witnesses relive Bloody Sunday](https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/i-will-never-forget-the-soldiers-face-witnesses-relive-bloody-sunday-41262043.html)
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Joseph Friel (20) was shot and wounded as he tried to make his way home. Daniel Gillespie (32) was hit by a bullet in the head and fell unconscious. Schoolboy Michael Quinn (17) was wounded by a bullet in the shoulder that exited through his face as he tried to escape the soldiers’ advance. William McKinney (27) was then shot in the back and killed as he tried to help the wounded, the same bullet wounding Joe Mahon (16).
Nearby, Patsy O’Donnell (41) was wounded as he threw himself across a woman to protect her from firing. At the alleyway entrance to Abbey Park, Jim Wray (22) was on the ground and already wounded by the first burst of fire when he was shot again in the back at close range.
A former para identified only as Soldier F was charged in 2019 with the murder of Wray and McKinney and the attempted murder of O’Donnell, Friel, Quinn and Mahon. The prosecution case was halted last year, with families and wounded currently awaiting a High Court decision on the case against F as well as other soldiers. As it stands, Soldier F remains the only British serviceman to have been charged with murder over Bloody Sunday.
Joe Friel: The crowd was squealing, crying, roaring and shouting. I saw sheer unadulterated terror on people’s faces. I froze momentarily, then ran back towards the Rossville Flats to home. There were so many people packed into the doorway I couldn’t get in. I could still hear shots being fired, getting louder. There was no pattern to the shots, the lulls between bursts were only a matter of seconds. There was complete chaos on Rossville Street. People were running in every direction, bumping into each other. Realising I’d not be able to take cover in the flats, I crossed Rossville Street to Glenfada Park in sheer fear and have a clear memory of people falling to my right, to the north.
Danny Gillespie: I saw a group of about eight people coming into Glenfada Park North from the entrance by the rubble barricade. Some were carrying a youth I know as Michael Kelly away. He was obviously dead. There were people running about and I heard more shooting. I began to run towards Rossville Street to try to get away. I heard a sharp ‘crack’ and I knew that I had been hit. I fell forwards with my face down on the tarmac. My hat had been blown off. I could feel a stinging and burning sensation and I thought that I had lost the top of my head. Everything went black.
Denis Bradley [formerly Father Bradley, curate at Long Tower Parish]: I hadn’t seen paratroopers before. They were different looking, bigger, tougher and taller, more physical and aggressive. They didn’t talk to you like other soldiers. Their blackened faces struck me as odd as it was daytime. I had seen soldiers with blackened faces, but only during night operations. I realised then that I was in the middle of a war for the first time despite being used to the presence of soldiers before. I remember at around this point another soldier starting firing from the hip or waist in a southerly direction from the entrance to the Glenfada Park North car park at the east. I remember being horrified.
Joe Friel: I ran along Glenfada Park. People were running with me to get out. Everyone was panicking. I could see soldiers about five or six feet into Glenfada, coming from the north-eastern corner. The soldier in front was moving forward at no great pace and was firing. He had his gun in front of him just above waist height and was moving it from side to side – not swinging it, just moving it a few inches from left to right. The other soldiers weren’t firing their weapons. I heard three shots – bang, bang, bang. I felt a slight blow to my body no harder than a tap by a couple of fingers. My first thought was that I had been hit by a rubber bullet, I couldn’t take in that I had been shot. I looked down and could see blood. Within a second or two, a big gush of blood came out of my mouth. I shouted, “I’m shot, I’m shot!”
Joe Mahon, a civil rights marcher, aged 16: As we ran up towards Abbey Park, they just started firing. The only one I saw firing at that time was holding the gun at his hip and just firing into the crowd. Next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground. Then I heard a voice behind me, who I later found out was William McKinney, and he just said to me, “I’m hit, son, I’m hit!” He was lying right behind me and I could see another pair of feet nearby too.
Denis Bradley: The soldier was just shooting, not particularly at anyone. The angle of fire seemed to me slightly over people’s heads. I didn’t think the soldier had lost his head. I didn’t think he was going to shoot me. He didn’t say anything to me. One of the other soldiers told me to “get along”.
Patsy O’Donnell: I saw soldiers and, just at the corner, there was a woman crouching behind the fence. I saw a soldier take aim in my direction and I threw myself on top of her and behind the fence as low as possible. I heard the crack on the wall behind me and looking round I saw a hole in the wall, and I saw the top of my coat torn and I realised there was something wrong with me. I said to the woman, “I’m hit”. We rolled around the corner to the yard and sat there with Fr Bradley and others, and I realised then I had been shot in the shoulder.
Danny Gillespie: I regained my senses. Two young boys were asking me if I was alright and were helping me to my feet. The ground was lifting around me from the shots. The tall boy on my left was shot and I heard him groan. He fell on top of me and pushed me back on to the ground. He was lying over my legs and was still. I rolled to my left, so he fell off me, and pulled my feet out from underneath him and got up. I ran west towards the alleyway leading to Abbey Park. There was jelly-like blood running across my face and into my eyes. I stumbled up the shallow steps and fell twice running up them. My legs were like jelly and I was shaking.
It’s insanity that we learn everything there is to know about Henry the 8th in history lessons. We learn how he killed each of his wives for some reason. We learn about how the UK was fucking great in both World Wars and saved the world. Ireland is not once mentioned. British history lessons don’t dwell on mistakes or embarrassment, or just outright inhumanity.
Britain’s role in Ireland is incomphrensible to me. I went to the Museum of Free Derry with a most awful hangover, having had very many drinks with some friendly people from Derry the night before. Coming from England, I’m amazed at the warm welcome I had.
I can’t condone the IRA at the time, but I can’t say I wouldn’t be motivated to (re)act myself.
Can you imagine if the army shot dozens of unarmed protesters somewhere in England? Really says something about what the British state thinks of Irish people that they can openly massacre them with impunity like this.