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'In 90 seconds, 14 people lay dead and mortally wounded on the field and banks of Croke Park and on the streets outside. Tonight, 100 years on, we pause to remember them all: the 14 who went to a match, and never came home.'#B100dySunday pic.twitter.com/pjmQpt8EWc
— The GAA (@officialgaa) November 21, 2020
THE CENTENARY OF Bloody Sunday was marked today with a poignant commemoration in Dublin.
President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Micheal Martin were among those who attended the event at Croke Park.
14 people were killed or fatally wounded by British forces during the Gaelic football match that day, with dozens more injured.
Due to the coronavirus regulations, only a limited number of people could attend. The GAA encouraged those who stayed at home to light a candle.
On this day in 1920, 14 civilians came to a GAA match at Croke Park and tragically never returned home. On the darkest day in the history of the GAA and Croke Park, we mark the 100th anniversary of Bloody Sunday by remembering those victims; Jane Boyle, James Burke, pic.twitter.com/u9d3hFmvZw
— Croke Park (@CrokePark) November 21, 2020
The lives of the 14 victims were remembered in a ceremony that coincided with the lighting of 14 flames in a dedicated area of Hill 16 and a corresponding pillar of light dedicated to each of those who died.
There was also a performance of a specially commissioned piece of music by Colm Mac Con Iomaire.
It preceded a Leinster senior football final between Dublin and Meath.
Today marks the 100th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. In the absence of spectators being permitted at Croke Park we ask you to pay your own tribute today to those who died by lighting a candle at dusk at home. #BloodySunday100 pic.twitter.com/GAEzf4JII0
— Croke Park (@CrokePark) November 21, 2020
Speaking ahead of the event during which he laid a wreath, President Higgins said many lives were irrevocably changed as a result of the events that day.
“We recall today those lost and those who suffered with a sense of profound sadness and outrage even, but also as a reminder of the fragility of the hard-earned peace to which we have become accustomed and the consequences that flow from the abuse of power and the failure of diplomacy and politics,” he said.
“That the events that took place can, in their brutality and casualness to the taking of life, still shock and challenge us all is to be understood.
People from different backgrounds on the island may reflect on Bloody Sunday in different ways. We must respect this and be open to differing perspectives, and encourage a hospitality for these differing narratives of the events of that day.
“For all of us, to avoid becoming captives of any frozen version of the events of our past, we must find the courage to remember painful events with honesty.
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“Doing this can only assist us in taking responsibility for the present and our shared, peaceful future together.”
The Taoiseach described Bloody Sunday as “one of the most poignant days in Ireland’s struggle for independence”.
“The violence of what happened in Croke Park still has the capacity to shock and move us,” he said.
100 years on, we remember the 14 people who lost their lives that day.
Earlier, outside the main gates of the stadium, an unofficial commemoration took place.
The was a short procession led by a piper before pictures of the 14 killed and flowers were laid as a number of people watched on applauding each name as it was read out.
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