Tomorrow, November 21st, marks the centenary of Bloody Sunday. The day began with an Irish Republican Army operation, organised by Michael Collins, to assassinate members of the “Cairo Gang” – a group of undercover British intelligence agents working and living in Dublin. IRA operatives went to a number of addresses and killed or fatally wounded 15 men.
Later that afternoon, British forces (the RIC, Auxiliaries and British Army) raided a Gaelic football match in Croke Park. Without provocation, these forces opened fire on the spectators and players, killing fourteen civilians and wounding at least sixty others.
That evening, two Irish republicans (Dick McKee and Peadar Clancy) who had helped plan the earlier assassinations, along with a civilian (Conor Clune) who happened to be caught with the others, were beaten and shot dead in Dublin Castle by their British captors, who claimed they were killed during an escape attempt.
On Friday’s Morning Focus, Gavin Grace spoke to Conor Clune, descendant of both Cranny’s Peadar Clancy and Quinn’s Conor Clune, and Pat Shannon, grand-nephew to Peadar Clancy about the events of that day in 1920.
