Debunking some of the myths around Bloody Sunday

Analysis: the truth often gets in the way of a good story as some of the myths and tales around Bloody Sunday 1920 show

The events of Bloody Sunday, November 21st 1920, are regarded as having marked a decisive turning-point in the Irish War of Independence. Three separate but connected events occurred that day: the killings by Michael Collins's 'squad’ of British Intelligence agents in their Dublin homes that morning; the killing by British forces of 14 civilians at Croke Park in the afternoon and the arrest and killing of two high-ranking Dublin IRA officers that night. In all, 30 people died within fifteen hours on that fateful day in Dublin. Like many events of historical importance, facts about Bloody Sunday have been coloured or clouded by political censorship, social biases and urban legends fueled by fictionalized accounts made popular in film and other media.

Given that Dublin and Tipperary contested the 1920 All-Ireland final (which was played in June 1922 due to the turmoil of the Irish revolution), the Bloody Sunday fixture is often confused as a championship final. The match on November 21st was a challenge match which was initiated by the Tipperary team who challenged Dublin to a game ‘on the first available date in any venue and for any object’. The proceeds of this one-off challenge match were to be donated to the Republican Prisoners Dependents Fund.

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From RTÉ Archives, 1970 RTÉ News report on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday at Croke Park

Neil Jordan’s 1996 film Michael Collins shaped many perceptions of Bloody Sunday. One scene depicts the shootings in Croke Park, but with added drama and exaggeration. In the film, British armoured vehicles drove into the ground and, without warning, open fire with machine guns mounted on their armoured vehicles. Eye-witness accounts suggest that an aeroplane flew over Croke Park five minutes after the throw-in. It circled the ground twice and shot a red flare - a signal to a mixed force of Royal Irish Constabulary (R.I.C.), Auxiliary Police and Military who stopped outside the grounds in the armoured vehicles and carried out the shooting by hand.

The film scene also shows Michael Hogan scoring a point and celebrating jubilantly to the Crown Forces before they gunned him down. Deirdre O'Shea, whose mother and uncle attended the match, recalls how they saw Hogan fall to the ground close to where she was sitting and noted how there was no play near Hogan at the time. There was no score in the game at the time that the shooting broke out.

The film also depicts a Tipperary and Dublin player being shot on the field, whereas Hogan was the only player to be hit by bullets that day. Director Jordan responded to the careless liberties with historical facts in the film by stating that "the reason I did it really is because I wanted the scene to last 30 seconds".

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RTÉ Sport's GAA podcast discusses Bloody Sunday with "The Bloodied Field" author Michael Foley, historian Mark Duncan and RTÉ's Mikey Stafford and Rory O'Neill 

Hogan was the only footballer to die in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday and has subsequently been portrayed as a martyr in the context of this tragedy and within the annals of GAA history. The Hogan stand in Croke Park is named in his memory and writings about the shootings almost always single him out as the sole footballer who fell victim that day.

There are attempts to accord Hogan with an even higher status as captain of the Tipperary team. Newspaper articles and commercial websites incorrectly describe him as the captain of the Tipperary footballers. Likewise, in a short film about the War of Independence that runs on a loop in the GAA Museum, the narrator labels Hogan as the captain. Ned O’Shea from Fethard was the captain on Bloody Sunday and also when Tipperary captured the All-Ireland title in 1920. It was O’Shea who wired the news of his teammate Hogan’s death to his family in Grangemockler the day after.

The Tipperary Museum of Hidden History in Clonmel holds what they present as 'the jersey owned by Tipperary Gaelic footballer Michael Hogan’. It is important to note how the display label does not say that it is the jersey worn by Hogan (on Bloody Sunday or at another stage), but that it was owned by him. However, myth has taken over and it is often perceived as the jersey that he wore when he was shot dead. The remarkably clean condition of the jersey does not correlate with the circumstances of his death, which would have seen him losing a substantial amount of blood due to the exit wounds.

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From RTÉ Radio 1's Documentary On One, 100 Years, 100 Miles follows Vincent Murphy's 100 mile cycle as he explores his Grand Uncle Gus McCarthy's involvement in Bloody Sunday

In a recent History Ireland podcast, Jayne Sutcliffe, Documentation and Collections Officer at the Tipperary Museum of Hidden History stated that "we are of the conclusion that it was not the jersey that Hogan died in but that is not to say that he did not own it as it was a Grangemockler jersey. That is a complete conjecture on our part, we have no way of proving. That is the nature of these kinds of events. Things [stories] get legs. We can actually categorically say that he did not die in the jersey. But that is not to say that it’s not a spare or something or connected to him in some form"

So there we have it. The most famous tangible reminder of Bloody Sunday, displayed to the public for the last 40 years has a more secondary, abstract connection to the infamous day, instead of the immediate connection as previously understood. In the effort to bestow the jersey with a remarkable connection to Hogan, the martyr of Bloody Sunday, its actual provenance has been distorted.

Nevertheless, it is a powerful historical object and a rare material reminder of Bloody Sunday. The desire to tell a gripping and sensational story can often interfere with the true historical facts and potentially create misrepresentations of the past. In order to gain a wider understanding of Bloody Sunday and the Irish War of Independence, we must look towards a variety of sources. But hey, don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.

The author would like to thank Deirdre O’Shea for her time in providing her recollections of witness accounts of Bloody Sunday passed down from her mother Kathleen and uncle Jack.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ