However, it is because of this, that this source is extremely useful in showing that in the early nineties repression of the Irish was strong and the desperate need for political change is what helped cause the Bloody Sunday massacre to occur.
In the immediate afetrmath of Bloody Sunday one protestor, Walter Crane described what took place on the day, "I never saw anything more like real warfare in my life."" Crane, a resident protestor of Derry, explains how brutal and war like the incident was except that "the attack was all on one side."" Although based on opinion, this source is useful as it gives us another version of events. It seems unreliable because of Crane's Irish background but it can be argued that he may be telling the truth because his claim can be backed up by many similar reports from both Irish and British civilians. This source helps to question the reliability of the British Army's excuse, as the shooting was all one sided not a reaction to a threat in the crowd. With unrest and dissatisfaction like this mounting, we can see that Northern Ireland was in desparate need for both goverments to take a strong hand and give Northern Ireland the political reform it needed and had been protesting for. .
The British Army and Government had their story, however, marchers, residents of Bogside and Irish journalists, such as Mark Farnan, who were there to cover the march, challenge this account. Many of them claim that the soldiers fired indiscriminately into the crowd. This account reinforces the idea that the British were not firing at certain IRA threats but throughout the crowd at random, not looking for any particular targets. .
After Bloody Sunday, many of the Irish population distrusted the army, seeing it no longer as their protector but as their enemy. This caused political repercussions, such as many young Nationalists becoming increasingly attracted to splinter republican groups.