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Date Posted: 05:57:47 08/28/09 Fri
Author: Carla
Subject: Part Six: History’s Prisoners

There were some pretty graphic pictures of the events of Bloody Sunday mirroring Cindy's description of the events of the day. She had the details down to a "t" as my first thoughts upon seeing them was "oh, that's just the way Cindy wrote it."

Chapter 61: Butcher’s Dozen

Pat is in Derry for a peaceful protest march against the current state of affairs in Northern Ireland. He’s worried about the Paras – an elite group of British soldiers – and what their presence in Derry for the march would mean. As the march progresses to the end point where Bernadette Devlin is to speak, Pat is icy with foreboding. His fears are born out when the Paras start firing real bullets into the crowd.

In the ensuing chaos, Pat finds himself caring for a wounded boy with Father Jim while they are pinned down by gunfire and hemmed in by barricades. Horror after horror unfolds before their eyes with unarmed men, women and children shot down by the British. Pat himself is shot, and it is only by fluke or miracle that the bullet merely grazes his temple rather than blowing the side of his head apart.

At the end of the day, 13 unarmed boys and men are killed. All unarmed. All Catholic. Eighteen are wounded, two of them women. Atrocities abound – soldiers preventing priests from giving the last rites to the dying, men and boys beaten and threatened, the wounded left to bleed to death where they fell in the streets. It became the turning point in Irish anger against the British in Northern Ireland and a mere blip in the radar of daily life in England.

What do you think makes ordinary men (and women) capable of such cold-blooded, unprovoked killing?

Chapter 62: No Place for Love or Dream at All . . .

Pat goes with Father Jim to attend and document the postmortems on those killed during Bloody Sunday. All the forensic evidence points to people shot from behind or while they were down, despite British claims the dead were the attackers and the British merely defending themselves.

Later, in the church yard, Pat offers his explanation of the events of the days before – the British powers-that-be wanted cause outrage in Northern Ireland such that hordes of men would flock to join the IRA, making it easier for the British themselves to put spies in place. Pat says he’s not joined “today.”

Pat is having a difficult time processing all he’s seen and done in the last day and Father Jim tries to help him to no avail. Casey arrives and finds Pat packed and ready to leave. Casey tells Pat he’s come to take him home and they leave together.

Do you feel you know all you are capable of? Do any of us really know until we are placed in such extreme circumstances? Was Father Jim right to bring Pat to the morgue to learn just how blatant the murders were?

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