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1972 was Northern Ireland’s darkest year: ‘There was a bomb, then another… Chunks of the city fell apart around us’

As the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday approaches, writer and Belfast Telegraph columnist Malachi O’Doherty looks back half a century to our darkest year, when he was a young journalist witnessing the unfolding horror of the Troubles

Bristol LH's Nos 1108 and 1109 burn in the aftermath of Bloody Friday at Great Victoria Street depot on July 21st 1972 - Credit - British Pathe LTD

April 1972 72-4637 (Photo by WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

File photo dated 31/1/1972 of a man receiving attention during the shooting in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, which became known as Bloody Sunday. A former British soldier has been arrested by detectives investigating the incident. PRESS ASSOCIATION

British troops arrest civilians on Rossville St, Londonderry during a civil rights march. The day went on to become known as Bloody Sunday as British paratroopers shot dead 13 civilians. (Photo by William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images)

A young boy is held by British soldiers from the Gloucester Regiment after he was caught in the act of hurling stones at a Saracen Armoured Personal Carrier in the IRA (Irish Republican Army) stronghold, the lower Falls Road area, March 1972, Belfast, Northern Ireland. The boy claimed he was paid by extremists to toss rocks at the British troops. The year 1972 the most violent year of the Troubles in Northern, Ireland. (Photo by Oliver Morris/Getty Images)

Ulster v All Blacks 18/11/1972 Jeff Matheson, the All Blacks prop, in training under then watchful eye of then Army at Ballymena rugby ground, Eaton Park. 17/11/1972

C and C Office Supplies. Royal Navy Buccaneer jet crashed into the East Belfast office supply showroom at Orby Road. 6/10/1972. **BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE*** Managing Director Robert Calvert.

John Taylor: Ulster Unionist. The interior of MP John Taylors car after the Stormont Minister for Home Affairs was shot and injured. 25/2/1972

EXPLOSIONS:BELFAST: EUROPA HOTEL. The extensive damage caused to the Europa Hotel, Belfast, following a bomb explsoion in the first floor ladies toilets. 9/6/1972

A woman eyes a British soldier on patrol in the republican New Lodge district of Belfast, 21st January 1972. (Photo by Alex Bowie/Getty Images)

Londonderry. Bloody Sunday. Funeral. Mrs Ita McKinney, 9 months pregnant cries behind the hearse carrying her husband James from St Mary's, Creggan. 2/2/1972.

When you're three-years-old and looking forward to a fortnight's holiday you can't wait to get away. But Ingrid Doherty, of Bligh's Gardens, Derry, shows real what real patience is as she wait for the train at Waterside station. 8/8/1972

An injured man is led away following the Abercorn Bar Bomb in March 1972.

Wrecked buses lie among the ruins of Smithfield Station in the centre of Belfast, which was completely destroyed by a bomb. 21/1/1972.

Orange Order:Twelfth Parading at 12th July celebrations in Belfast. 12/7/1972

York Road Railway Station. Bloody Friday. The bomb damaged interior of the railway station after an explosion. 21/7/1972

Ulster Defence Association/U.D.A: 1972. UDA in Londonderry. 30/09/72

Sydney Agnew. Murdered at Home. 18/1/1972. Mrs Agnew (right), widow of Mr Sydney Agnew, the murdered Corporation bus driver, comforts her two children before the funeral cortege moves off. 21/1/1972

Edward Heath in 1972 in Northern Ireland.

Bloody Sunday compensation...File photo dated 02/02/72 of the inside of St Mary's Church, on the Creggan Estate, during a Requiem Mass for the 13 who died on 'Bloody Sunday' in Londonderry. The Ministry of Defence is preparing to pay compensation to relatives of those killed or injured by soldiers on Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Thursday September 22, 2011. Fourteen people died after paratroopers opened fire in January 1972 during a civil rights protest in Londonderry. Prime Minister David Cameron has already apologised to victims and said the shootings were wrong. See PA story ULSTER Sunday. Photo credit should read: PA Wire...A

Northern Ireland Troubles...File photo dated 20/03/1972 of a British paratrooper taking a young girl in his arms to comfort her after she had been hurt in a bomb blast in Belfast. Sandra Peake, CEO of Wave trauma centre has told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee that halting investigations into the majority of unsolved Troubles killings will send a signal to dissident republicans that they can get away with violence. PA Photo. Issue date: Wednesday July 1, 2020. See PA story ULSTER Victims. Photo credit should read: Derek Brind/PA Wire ...A

EXPLOSIONS: BELFAST: ANDERSON STREET (SHORT STRAND). 28TH MAY 1972. 8 people killed when a bomb exploded in a house in Anderson Street. Four of the dead were members of the IRA.

Aftermath scenes of the Lenadoon Estate siege during which 3000 rounds were fired on a rocket and a bomb at the army post. July 1972 72-7407-003 (Photo by WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

The Year of Chaos, Northern Ireland on the Brink of Civil War, 1971-72

Bristol LH's Nos 1108 and 1109 burn in the aftermath of Bloody Friday at Great Victoria Street depot on July 21st 1972 - Credit - British Pathe LTD

April 1972 72-4637 (Photo by WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

Mirrorpix via Getty Images

Londonderry. Bloody Sunday 31/1/1972

File photo dated 31/1/1972 of a man receiving attention during the shooting in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, which became known as Bloody Sunday. A former British soldier has been arrested by detectives investigating the incident. PRESS ASSOCIATION

British troops arrest civilians on Rossville St, Londonderry during a civil rights march. The day went on to become known as Bloody Sunday as British paratroopers shot dead 13 civilians. (Photo by William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images)

Getty Images

A young boy is held by British soldiers from the Gloucester Regiment after he was caught in the act of hurling stones at a Saracen Armoured Personal Carrier in the IRA (Irish Republican Army) stronghold, the lower Falls Road area, March 1972, Belfast, Northern Ireland. The boy claimed he was paid by extremists to toss rocks at the British troops. The year 1972 the most violent year of the Troubles in Northern, Ireland. (Photo by Oliver Morris/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Ulster v All Blacks 18/11/1972 Jeff Matheson, the All Blacks prop, in training under then watchful eye of then Army at Ballymena rugby ground, Eaton Park. 17/11/1972

C and C Office Supplies. Royal Navy Buccaneer jet crashed into the East Belfast office supply showroom at Orby Road. 6/10/1972. **BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE*** Managing Director Robert Calvert.

John Taylor: Ulster Unionist. The interior of MP John Taylors car after the Stormont Minister for Home Affairs was shot and injured. 25/2/1972

EXPLOSIONS:BELFAST: EUROPA HOTEL. The extensive damage caused to the Europa Hotel, Belfast, following a bomb explsoion in the first floor ladies toilets. 9/6/1972

A woman eyes a British soldier on patrol in the republican New Lodge district of Belfast, 21st January 1972. (Photo by Alex Bowie/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Londonderry. Bloody Sunday. Funeral. Mrs Ita McKinney, 9 months pregnant cries behind the hearse carrying her husband James from St Mary's, Creggan. 2/2/1972.

When you're three-years-old and looking forward to a fortnight's holiday you can't wait to get away. But Ingrid Doherty, of Bligh's Gardens, Derry, shows real what real patience is as she wait for the train at Waterside station. 8/8/1972

An injured man is led away following the Abercorn Bar Bomb in March 1972.

Wrecked buses lie among the ruins of Smithfield Station in the centre of Belfast, which was completely destroyed by a bomb. 21/1/1972.

Orange Order:Twelfth Parading at 12th July celebrations in Belfast. 12/7/1972

York Road Railway Station. Bloody Friday. The bomb damaged interior of the railway station after an explosion. 21/7/1972

Ulster Defence Association/U.D.A: 1972. UDA in Londonderry. 30/09/72

Sydney Agnew. Murdered at Home. 18/1/1972. Mrs Agnew (right), widow of Mr Sydney Agnew, the murdered Corporation bus driver, comforts her two children before the funeral cortege moves off. 21/1/1972

Edward Heath in 1972 in Northern Ireland.

Bloody Sunday compensation...File photo dated 02/02/72 of the inside of St Mary's Church, on the Creggan Estate, during a Requiem Mass for the 13 who died on 'Bloody Sunday' in Londonderry. The Ministry of Defence is preparing to pay compensation to relatives of those killed or injured by soldiers on Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Thursday September 22, 2011. Fourteen people died after paratroopers opened fire in January 1972 during a civil rights protest in Londonderry. Prime Minister David Cameron has already apologised to victims and said the shootings were wrong. See PA story ULSTER Sunday. Photo credit should read: PA Wire...A

Northern Ireland Troubles...File photo dated 20/03/1972 of a British paratrooper taking a young girl in his arms to comfort her after she had been hurt in a bomb blast in Belfast. Sandra Peake, CEO of Wave trauma centre has told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee that halting investigations into the majority of unsolved Troubles killings will send a signal to dissident republicans that they can get away with violence. PA Photo. Issue date: Wednesday July 1, 2020. See PA story ULSTER Victims. Photo credit should read: Derek Brind/PA Wire ...A

EXPLOSIONS: BELFAST: ANDERSON STREET (SHORT STRAND). 28TH MAY 1972. 8 people killed when a bomb exploded in a house in Anderson Street. Four of the dead were members of the IRA.

Aftermath scenes of the Lenadoon Estate siege during which 3000 rounds were fired on a rocket and a bomb at the army post. July 1972 72-7407-003 (Photo by WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

Mirrorpix via Getty Images

The Year of Chaos, Northern Ireland on the Brink of Civil War, 1971-72

Bristol LH's Nos 1108 and 1109 burn in the aftermath of Bloody Friday at Great Victoria Street depot on July 21st 1972 - Credit - British Pathe LTD

Malachi O'Doherty Twitter

January 22 2022 12:00 AM

Whenever TV documentaries look back on the early days of the Troubles, they will often play the pop music of the time over images of funerals or bomb wreckage.

This doesn’t work for me. When I stood watching funerals or riots I wasn’t humming those songs to myself. Was anyone? I doubt it.

I had to ask Google for the number one song on the day of Bloody Sunday. It was Don McLean’s American Pie.

April 1972 72-4637 (Photo by WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

Mirrorpix via Getty Images

April 1972 72-4637 (Photo by WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

I know that song by heart but have never before connected ‘The Day the Music Died’ with a day in which I almost died to music myself, numbed by the news coming in of the rising death toll.

The fact that I knew and loved that song tells me that there were times even in the worst year of the Troubles when I was cheerful and sang to myself. I doubt I missed Top of the Pops once that year. I can easily recall sitting in the living room on a Thursday evening with my siblings to see the New Seekers, Cilla or Olivia Newton John, hoping that my father didn’t arrive home before it was over to tell us to turn ‘that bloody racket’ down.

But I don’t, and can’t associate that youthful interest in the music of the time with the dark mood that descended on the city when the violence was at its worst.

Timeline of 1972: By no means an exhaustive list of many of the events that unfolded

Londonderry. Bloody Sunday 31/1/1972

For me, and I suspect for most of us, it was like living separate lives almost simultaneously, or trying to hold onto normality and feeling, mixed in with every shock not just horror but deep disappointment.

‘Tension is rising in Belfast’, the newsreader would say. Another cliché of the time but one that, unlike using the pop music as a soundtrack for the violence, had real meaning.

It meant more than the newsreader could have known.

The tension really was in the very air and palpable. You could nearly have opened your window and put your head out to sense if there was danger. And the realist will say that what told you there was trouble was the distant clamour of shouting, that might have been a football game in the park, or the hint of wood smoke.

I often that year sat in with my mother in the evening waiting for it to start.

A couple of rifle shots on the main road.

The popping of soup cans in the Busy Bee when it was burned down after Bloody Sunday, alarming at first when it seemed it might be unprecedented gunfire, and then the realisation that gunfire had never sounded quite like that.

Young men in the neighbourhood actually passed our living room window with guns from their dump nearby.

I worked that year as a journalist on the Sunday News and lived at the same time on a corner near two IRA safe houses.

Getty Images

When seven men escaped from internment on the Maidstone prison ship a young heart could marvel at the courage and cheek of it. When they moved in across the street and established barricades to turn our estate into a no-go area, life was more restricted and the sense of living separate lives increased.

I wrote an article about life there and presented it as an interview with an anonymous housewife but it was all based on what I saw going on around me.

There was snow on the ground on the day after Bloody Sunday. Some kids on Bingnian Drive hijacked a lorry carrying electric heaters. Some of them tobogganed on the heaters. Others went door to door giving them away.

The paratroopers, when they came back from Derry, adopted a different way of walking to soldiers in other regiments, the rifle stock resting on the hip, the barrel pointing proudly into the air. They swaggered.

Getty Images

On early Sunday mornings when a taxi took me home from Donegall Street up the Falls Road, paras with blackened faces crouched in shop doorways and tracked every passing car through their gun sights.

This was Belfast’s darkest year. The streetlights in many areas were out at night, believed to have been vandalised by bombers taking the timers from them, though sometimes the lights came on during the day, those timers having been disrupted by power cuts.

A woman eyes a British soldier on patrol in the republican New Lodge district of Belfast, 21st January 1972. (Photo by Alex Bowie/Getty Images)

Getty Images

A woman eyes a British soldier on patrol in the republican New Lodge district of Belfast, 21st January 1972. (Photo by Alex Bowie/Getty Images)

I worked in the city centre and we were often cleared out of our offices by bomb scares.

I was often sent to small towns and country areas to write lighter feature articles and would arrive back in the city in the evening after a bombing, when the pavements were littered with glass and thousands of workers tried to make their way home because the buses were off.

Wrecked buses lie among the ruins of Smithfield Station in the centre of Belfast, which was completely destroyed by a bomb. 21/1/1972.

The pubs near home that were safer to go to were often concentrations of militant culture and there were new shebeens set up to cater for people wary of travelling outside their area and to raise money for their causes.

Chunks of the city fell apart around us. I was off work on the Monday that Donegall Street was bombed. Afterwards I was told that angry workers had come to the office looking for me and found another reporter.

Compositors on the paper who did not like my Irish name often dropped it from my articles.

One photographer told me ‘we only want hundred percenters here’.

The Troubles worsened through the major events of that summer, The Abercorn bomb, Bloody Friday and the heightened sectarian tit for tat during a notional July ceasefire, Operation Motorman, the army’s invasion of the No-Go areas.

An injured man is led away following the Abercorn Bar Bomb in March 1972.

Staff photographers declined to come into Andersonstown with me and we had to hire freelancers. But it was understandable that people were angry and afraid.

The one time that I did walk down Royal Avenue singing in the rain was on the afternoon the ceasefire was announced, naively thinking the Troubles might now be over.

One night during the ceasefire my midnight taxi was stopped at an IRA checkpoint on the Falls Road and I got out and asked one of the IRA men to show me his Armalite. I had heard plenty but never seen one up close.

The taxi driver, the following week got his own back on me by detouring up to the Shankill through loyalist checkpoints there, scaring the wits out of me.

I was on Lenadoon Avenue when the Provos ended their ceasefire over the army’s refusal to let homeless Catholic families move into empty houses on Horn Drive at the bottom of the hill.

Mirrorpix via Getty Images

That ceasefire established some basic peace processing principles that endured, such as that the IRA would always be regarded as being on ceasefire if they said they were, no matter how many people they killed, so long as they weren’t police or soldiers.

More people died in the two weeks of the ceasefire than in the two weeks before it.

On Bloody Friday I was out shopping at lunchtime with another reporter, Eddie. I bought myself a nice little suede jacket for nine guineas in a shop on Royal Avenue. We heard the first bomb while walking back to the office.

That wasn’t unusual. We commented on it but we didn’t rush for cover, until there was another bomb and another.

There was urgency more than actual pandemonium in the office. A girl who had been bombed before when working at the Milk Marketing Board was being carried screaming down the stairs. We sheltered in the long print room listening to more distant explosions. My friend Steve nudged me to look up and I saw that the high ceiling over us was one of those serrated factory roofs with skylights, glass that would shower over us if shattered by a blast.

Back in the office I answered the phone to Gerry O’Hare, the press officer for the Belfast Brigade and swore at him.

My news editor took the phone from me and told me to be more civil to people who were useful contacts.

EXPLOSIONS: BELFAST: ANDERSON STREET (SHORT STRAND). 28TH MAY 1972. 8 people killed when a bomb exploded in a house in Anderson Street. Four of the dead were members of the IRA.

I was a young journalist and felt inadequate before the horror and scale of the big story of the Troubles and resolved in later life to revisit that period and write a book about it. I wrote a short memoir, The Telling Year, in 2007 and last year brought out The Year of Chaos, studying the political and military machinations more closely. The paperback will be published later this year.

What I discovered in my research was that I was not alone in grasping for a handle on the meaning and course of events, that the most senior players in governments and in the army, in community groups and paramilitaries were struggling to comprehend and manage the forces that had been unleashed.

Ulster Defence Association/U.D.A: 1972. UDA in Londonderry. 30/09/72

EXPLOSIONS:BELFAST: EUROPA HOTEL. The extensive damage caused to the Europa Hotel, Belfast, following a bomb explsoion in the first floor ladies toilets. 9/6/1972

Today they will explain it all in terms of strategies and ideologies. They’ll blame it on partition, discrimination, terrorism, the denial of civil rights, sectarianism or political ineptitude. For me looking back it feels, as it did then, as if a plague of madness had overwhelmed us.

The Year of Chaos, Northern Ireland on the Brink of Civil War, 1971-72, Atlantic Books, is available now

The Year of Chaos, Northern Ireland on the Brink of Civil War, 1971-72

1972 was Northern Ireland’s darkest year: ‘There was a bomb, then another… Chunks of the city fell apart around us’

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