Croke Park 1920: Remembering the victims of Bloody Sunday

Bloody Sunday is a date that many associate with the events in Derry on January 30, 1972. On that day the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association called a protest in Derry. At that peaceful demonstration British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians killing fourteen people. This was not the only ‘Bloody Sunday’ in 20th century Irish History. Today, 21 November, marks the anniversary of British forces opening fire on the crowd at a Gaelic football match in Dublin.

On the afternoon of Sunday November 21st 1920 members of the British forces entered Croke Park in Dublin where a Gaelic football match between Dublin and Tipperary was scheduled to take place. They opened fire indiscriminately into the crowd killing 12 men, a 14-year-old boy, William Scott, 26 years old Jane Boyle and wounded at least sixty other civilians. 

Earlier that day, under the direction of Michael Collins (Irish: Mícheál Ó Coileáin; 16 October 1890 – 22 August 1922) a leading figure in the struggle for Irish independence, an IRA operation was undertaken against a group of Dublin-based British intelligence agents. In various locations around Dublin city centre, they shot 19 of them. That night three republican prisoners, Peadar Clancy, Dick McKee and Conor Clune, were murdered in Dublin Castle, supposedly, “while trying to escape”. The operation dealt a serious blow to Britain’s efforts to quell the military campaign for Irish independence. 

The attack on civilians at Croke Park was a reprisal for the IRA operation, designed to instill fear on the population. Instead it increased support for the struggle for Irish freedom at home and abroad.

Croke Park victims:

Jane Boyle (26) Dublin

James Burke (44) Dublin

Daniel Carroll (30) Tipperary

Michael Feery (40) Dublin

Michael ‘Mick’ Hogan (24) Tipperary

Tom Hogan (19) Limerick

James Matthews (38) Dublin

Patrick O’Dowd (57) Dublin

Jerome O’Leary (10) Dublin

William Robinson (11) Dublin

Tom Ryan (27) Wexford

John William Scott (14) Dublin

James Teehan (26) Tipperary

Joe Traynor (21) Dublin