Analysing Sources What happened at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday?


CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES


LSource 1 Historian’s view Today two theories exist as to what happened in Croke Park. At a time when there was considerable infiltration of the GAA by the IRA, the authorities claimed that the first shots were fired by IRA men hiding in the crowd of spectators in order to create a panic and evade arrest. The alternative theory is that Auxiliary/RIC forces went to Croke Park in reprisal for the attacks that morning on British secret service men at the hands of Collins’ squad. According to the RIC/ Auxiliary witness accounts, on their arrival at Croke Park a number of civilians appearing to be a picquet (on duty, on guard), were seen outside at the entrance close to the turnstiles and began firing at the forces as they dismounted from their convoy. It is this piece of information that is central to the authorities according blame to the civilians. (Source: The GAA through History and Documents, 1870–1920 [2008])


LSource 2 Witness Statement 15 At Croke Park on 21st


November I was in the second lorry of the


LSource 3 Witness Statement 22 On Sunday 21st


inst., I was on duty outside the


main entrance [to] Croke Park in Jones’s Road … three small Crossley lorries pulled up in Jones’s Road. There were about ten or 12 men dressed in RIC uniforms in each. When they got out of the cars they started firing in the air which I thought was blank ammunition, and almost immediately firing started all round the ground. Some of the men who got out of the lorries went into the field and others remained on the road.


LSource 4


Opinion of Military Court of Inquiry into what happened I consider that the first shots were fired by members in the crowd, and that these shots led to the panic. I consider that the firing on the crowd was carried out without orders, was indiscriminate (random), and unjustifiable, with the exception of any shooting that took place inside the enclosure. (Major-General Boyd, Commanding Dublin District, 11 December 1920)


police convoy. As soon as we got to the top of the Canal Bridge I saw a group of about ten civilians. Some in the middle of the street and some on the sides between the bridge and the turning down to the turnstiles. By their demeanour (behaviour) and formation, they gave us an impression that they were a picquet (on guard). Those men immediately on our arrival turned round and started to run towards the nearest entrance gates; as they ran they turned round and fired at the first car. Those were the first shots I heard. I noticed three or four of them firing.


1. According to Source 1, what did the authorities claim happened at Croke Park?


2. In Source 1, why did the Auxiliaries go to Croke Park, according to the second theory?


3. What is the main point made by Witness Statement 15 in Source 2?


4. What is the main point made by Witness Statement 22 in Source 3?


5. What conclusions were made by the Military Court of Enquiry in Source 4?


6. Which of the two theories in Source 1 are supported by either of the Sources 2 and 3?


7. Can you explain why the witnesses in Source 2 and 3 disagree?


8. Are these sources biased?


9. What, do you think, happened in Croke Park on that day? Explain your answers using evidence from the sources.


247


Q


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