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Scannal Burning Of The British Embassy Image Name: Scannal Burning Of The British Embassy Description: Gardai protect the British embassy on Dublin's Merrion Square...
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Scannal Burning Of The British Embassy Image Name: Scannal Burning Of The British Embassy Description: Scannal Burning Of The British Embassy

SCANNAL

Episode 2: Burning the British Embassy

Monday 14th September 2015 RTÉ One 7.30pm

 

On Sunday the 30th  of January 1972 at a civil rights march in Derry, 13 unarmed civilians were shot dead by British soldiers while another was to die from his injuries four-and-a-half months  later. The day became known as Bloody Sunday and the images of the massacre shown on news bulletins sent shockwaves  around the world as well as south of the border.

 

The following day people took to the streets to express their outrage at events in Derry. An Taoiseach Jack Lynch addressed the nation,  pledging his support to northern Nationalists and the Irish Ambassador was recalled from London. People gathered outside the British Embassy on Merrion Square in Dublin,  some handing in letters of condemnation while other carried placards with anti-British slogans.

 

On Tuesday (1st Feb) the crowds at the Embassy were building and petrol bombs as well as other missiles were hurled at the building.  About 200 Gardaí stood guard outside the Embassy and although British diplomats had appealed to the Government to deploy the Army to protect their Embassy, the authorities here felt bringing armed troops onto the streets could only make the situation worse.

 

A national day of mourning was declared for Wednesday 2nd February when schools and businesses closed and special masses were held all over the country in memory of those killed in Derry, whose funerals were taking place that day. It was a day of high emotion. Outside the British Embassy the crowd swelled to over 30,000 including known members of both the Official and Provisional IRA.  Eventually the Garda cordon was breached and the  Embassy was set on fire to the cheers of the crowd.  The building  was burned to a shell and the protestors dispersed, their anger in some way satisfied. Could it have been avoided?  or were the Government happy to let the mob vent their fury?

 

This episode of SCANNAL  looks back at those days of massacre and mayhem, when anti-British feeling was at an all-time high.  Anglo-Irish relations were at an all-time low.  Scotland and Wales refused to travel here to play Ireland in rugby and the Irish charts were  topped by  the ‘Men Behind the Wire’ and Paul McCartney’s ‘Give Ireland Back to the Irish” .

 

Contributors include former Gardaí John O’Brien and Matt Cosgrave who were on duty outside the Embassy, Paul Shannon of the Dublin Fire Brigade  called out to quench the flames and Gearóid Denvir who as a student  witnessed “Burning of the British Embassy”.  There are additional contributions from political commentators Áine Ní Chiaráín and Prof. Alan Titley, historian Dr.Niall Ó Dochartaigh and Senator David Norris,  who was appalled to witness a beautiful Georgian building burned to the ground.

 

Presenter/Reporter    Garry Mac Donncha

Producer/Director      Eimear O’Mahony