For other incidents referred to by this name, see Bloody Sunday

Bloody Sunday

-Events :* Bloody Sunday , a demonstration in London, England against British repression in Ireland* Bloody Sunday , a day of high casualties in the Second Boer War, South Africa...

Bloody Sunday, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, 13 November 1887, was the name given to a demonstration against coercion in Ireland

Irish Coercion Act

The Protection of Person and Property Act 1881 was one of more than 100 Coercion Acts passed by the Parliament of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland between 1801 and 1922, in an attempt to establish law and order in Ireland. The 1881 Act was passed by parliament and introduced by...

 and to demand the release from prison of MP William O'Brien

William O'Brien

William O'Brien was an Irish nationalist, journalist, agrarian agitator, social revolutionary, politician, party leader, newspaper publisher, author and Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...

, who was imprisoned for incitement as a result of an incident in the Irish Land War

Land War

The Land War in Irish history was a period of agrarian agitation in rural Ireland in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s. The agitation was led by the Irish National Land League and was dedicated to bettering the position of tenant farmers and ultimately to a redistribution of land to tenants from...

. The demonstration was organized by the Social Democratic Federation

Social Democratic Federation

The Social Democratic Federation was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on June 7, 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury and Eleanor Marx. However, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx's long-term...

 and the Irish National League. Violent clashes between police and demonstrators resulted in the killing of three protesters and the beating of hundreds more.

Background

Gladstone's

William Ewart Gladstone

William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...

 espousal of the cause of Irish Home Rule

Home rule

Home rule is the power of a constituent part of a state to exercise such of the state's powers of governance within its own administrative area that have been devolved to it by the central government....

 had split the Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 and made it easy for the Conservatives

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 to gain a majority in the House of Commons. The period from 1885 to 1906 was one of Tory

Tory

Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...

 dominance, with short intermissions. Coercion Acts

Irish Coercion Act

The Protection of Person and Property Act 1881 was one of more than 100 Coercion Acts passed by the Parliament of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland between 1801 and 1922, in an attempt to establish law and order in Ireland. The 1881 Act was passed by parliament and introduced by...

 were the answer of British governments perturbed by rural unrest in Ireland, and they involved various degrees of suspension of civil rights. Although the immediate object of the 13 November demonstration was to protest about the handling of the Irish situation by the Conservative government of Lord Salisbury, it had a much wider context.

The Long Depression

Long Depression

The Long Depression was a worldwide economic crisis, felt most heavily in Europe and the United States, which had been experiencing strong economic growth fueled by the Second Industrial Revolution in the decade following the American Civil War. At the time, the episode was labeled the Great...

, starting in 1873 and lasting almost to the end of the century, created difficult social conditions in Britain - similar to the economic problems that drove rural agitation in Ireland. Falling food prices created rural unemployment

Unemployment

Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...

, which resulted in both emigration

Emigration

Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...

 and internal migration

Human migration

Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...

. Workers moved to the towns and cities in thousands, eroding employment, wages and working conditions. By November 1887, unemployed workers' demonstrations from the East End of London

East End of London

The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...

 had been building up for more than two years. There had already been clashes with the police and with the members of upper class clubs. Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...

 was seen symbolically as the point at which the working class East End met upper class West End of London

West End of London

The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...

, a focus of class struggle

Class struggle

Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....

 and an obvious flash point.

This attracted the attention of the small but growing Socialist movement - both the Marxists of the SDF (Social Democratic Federation

Social Democratic Federation

The Social Democratic Federation was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on June 7, 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury and Eleanor Marx. However, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx's long-term...

) and Socialist League

Socialist League (UK, 1885)

The Socialist League was an early revolutionary socialist organisation in the United Kingdom. The organisation began as a dissident offshoot of the Social Democratic Federation of Henry Hyndman at the end of 1884. Never an ideologically harmonious group, by the 1890s the group had turned from...

 and the reformist Socialists of the Fabian Society

Fabian Society

The Fabian Society is a British socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World...

. Police and government attempts to suppress or divert the demonstrations also brought in the radical wing of the Liberal party and free speech activists from the National Secular Society

National Secular Society

The National Secular Society is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. It holds that no-one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of religion. It was founded by Charles Bradlaugh in 1866...

 and the Law and Liberty League, who saw the Square as a public space that had to kept free for public, political use. As so often in British politics, the Irish issue provided a focus for a wide range of political and social concerns. The Left

Left-wing politics

In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...

 felt that the Irish situation had direct parallels within Britain and that coercion in Ireland propelled repression in Britain.

Some historians believe that an important factor was the fact that the working class in British cities contained a very large element that was Irish in birth or origin. London, like industrial areas of Northern England and the West of Scotland, had a large Irish working class, concentrated in the East End, where it rubbed shoulders with a very diverse population, including increasing numbers of Jews from Eastern Europe. There was also a strong international dimension to the situation. Irish and British workers were strongly concerned about the fate of the anarchists

Anarchism

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

 arrested after the Haymarket Riot in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 the previous year.

Demonstration of 13 November

As fears grew that the demonstration would be very large and that police might attack it, Charles Bradlaugh

Charles Bradlaugh

Charles Bradlaugh was a political activist and one of the most famous English atheists of the 19th century. He founded the National Secular Society in 1866.-Early life:...

 of the National Secular Society advised his members to stay away. However, the Socialist and Radical groups largely maintained their support and their leaders took part. Some 10,000 marchers approached Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...

 from several different directions, led by (among others) Elizabeth Reynolds, John Burns

John Burns

John Elliot Burns was an English trade unionist and politician of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly associated with London politics. He was a socialist and then a Liberal Member of Parliament and Minister. He was anti-alcohol and a keen sportsman...

, Annie Besant

Annie Besant

Annie Besant was a prominent British Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule.She was married at 19 to Frank Besant but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society ...

 and Robert Cunninghame-Graham

Robert Cunninghame-Graham

Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham was a Scottish politician, writer, journalist and adventurer...

, who were primarily leaders of the Social Democratic Federation

Social Democratic Federation

The Social Democratic Federation was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on June 7, 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury and Eleanor Marx. However, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx's long-term...

. Also marching was the Fabian playwright George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

, who spoke during the demonstrations.

Two thousand police and 400 troops were deployed to halt the demonstration. In the ensuing clashes many demonstrators, including women and children, were badly beaten. Some demonstrators were injured and at least three died of the injuries they received. 200 were treated in hospital. Burns and Cunninghame-Graham were arrested and imprisoned for six weeks. Annie Besant

Annie Besant

Annie Besant was a prominent British Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule.She was married at 19 to Frank Besant but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society ...

, who was a Marxist, Fabian

Fabian

-People:*Fabian Månsson, , Swedish socialist*Fabian , , 1950s American teen idol and singer*Fabian Bachrach, an American photographer*Fabian Cancellara, , Swiss professional road cyclist...

 and secularist, spoke at the rally and offered herself for arrest, but was unable to get the police to respond.

Most of the injuries were inflicted by the police, using fists and truncheons. There were both infantry and cavalry present. Although the infantry were marched into position with bayonets fixed, they were not ordered to open fire and the cavalry were not ordered to draw their swords.

Aftermath

Bloody Sunday was certainly a major demonstration, but casualties were relatively light - much lower than in some clashes of the Reform agitation

Reform movement

A reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society, rather than rapid or fundamental changes...

 or Chartism

Chartism

Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...

, earlier in the century. Besant and William Thomas Stead

William Thomas Stead

William Thomas Stead was an English journalist and editor who, as one of the early pioneers of investigative journalism, became one of the most controversial figures of the Victorian era. His 'New Journalism' paved the way for today's tabloid press...

 (of the Law and Liberty League) were particularly active in organizing legal defence for the arrested and in raising funds for the families affected by arrest or injury of a wage-earner. Both were superb self-publicists and their skilled manipulation of press and public opinion created an impression of a much more serious massacre than actually took place. They stage-managed court appearances and other public events to gain maximum effect. The verse and oratory of William Morris

William Morris

William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...

, largely focused on the funerals, were important in fixing the memory of the events of 13 November.

The Liberal Party, nationally and in parliament, on the other hand, did not organize major protests. Gladstone continued to attack government policy in Ireland without condemning police treatment of Irish people living in Britain. The following Sunday, November 20, saw another demonstration and more casualties inflicted by the police. Among them was a young clerk named Alfred Linnell, a friend of William Morris who was marching next to the then-unknown George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

.

The funeral of Linnell in December provided another focus for the unemployed and Irish movements, with more attending than on Bloody Sunday itself. William Morris, leader of the Socialist League, gave the main speech and the crowd sang his "Death Song". A smaller but similar event marked the burial of another of those killed, W. B. Curner, which took place in January. The release of those imprisoned was celebrated on 20 February 1888, with large public meeting. Henry Hyndman

Henry Hyndman

Henry Mayers Hyndman was an English writer and politician, and the founder of the Social Democratic Federation and the National Socialist Party.-Early years:...

, leader of the SDF, violently denounced the Liberal Party and then went on to attack the Radical M.P.s who were present. This bitterly divisive speech marked the end of the movement that had culminated in Bloody Sunday and the funeral of Linnell.

Significance

Bloody Sunday and its aftermath were significant events in the history and the mythology of the British and Irish Left but they were also crucial media events. They formed a high point for the interest of the media and middle-class commentators in the "social question", largely embodied in the condition of the East End of London

East End of London

The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...

. The spectres of the mob or of poverty could be conjured, according to taste, to generate interest in social conditions. The spate of murders attributed to Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper

"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...

, which began shortly afterwards, diverted this attention and allowed concern with the East End to take a very different focus, around crime and policing.

Socialist activism, on the other hand, tended to flow away from direct political confrontation into the industrial struggles of the New Unionism

New Unionism

New Unionism is a term which has been used twice in the history of the labour movement, both times involving moves to broaden the trade union agenda.-1880s:First was the development within the British trade union movement in the late 1880s...

, like the London matchgirls strike of 1888

London matchgirls strike of 1888

The London match-girls’ strike of 1888 was a strike of the women and teenage girls working at the Bryant and May Factory in Bow, London.-The strike:...

 and the London Dock Strike of 1889

London Dock Strike of 1889

The London Dock Strike was an industrial dispute involving dock workers in the Port of London. It broke out on 14 August 1889, and resulted in a victory for the strikers and established strong trade unions amongst London dockers, one of which became the nationally important Dock, Wharf, Riverside...

. The rift between the middle-class liberals and secularists, on the one hand, and the Socialists, on the other, proved to be an important step in the evolution of an independent working class movement. The new unionism produced a new working class leadership, which was itself to mould the Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

in the next century.