January 2002
Two films depicting the events of Derry’s Bloody Sunday, 30 January 1972, were premiered at the start of January in Derry. The first, a Granada Television drama entitled "Bloody Sunday", was built around the character of Civil Rights campaigner and SDLP Stormont MP Ivan Cooper. Perhaps not surprisingly, the film came under fire from revisionist historian Ruth Dudley-Edwards, writing for the British tabloid The Daily Mail. Under the heading "Bloody Fantasy" Dudley-Edwards and another Mail journalist made a number of spurious claims about the film’s accuracy. The articles provoked outrage, leading to a call for a boycott of the Daily Mail and other papers in the Mail group, including Ireland on Sunday, according to the Derry News and the BBC.
The second film, titled "Sunday", by Channel 4 writer Jimmy McGovern is likely to provoke even greater controversy. This film, which was the result of a long term project with greater community involvement, charts the build up to the day of the ill-fated Civil Rights march, the massacre itself, and the subsequent massacre of the truth at the hands of Lord Widgery. Following the screening of the two films, all people would agree that both make a valuable contribution to understanding the traumatic events of that day. To make comparisons between the two would be invidious but there is widespread consensus in the city that "Sunday" is by far a more powerful and accurate reflection of the events. If a choice has to be made we would strongly recommend the latter. It will be aired on Channel 4 on Monday 28 January at 9 pm.