Julieann Campbell’s new oral history of ‘Bloody Sunday’ is ‘momentous’

Thirteen people were killed on Bloody Sunday. A fourteenth died later.

It has been produced by former Derry Journal reporter and award-winning author, Julieann Campbell.

The eagerly-anticipated new volume - entitled ‘On Bloody Sunday’ - is to be published by Monoray Books, an imprint of Hachette UK, which was responsible for ‘The Only Plane in the Sky’, the highly-acclaimed oral history of 9/11.

Ahead of its publication - earmarked to dovetail with the 50th anniversary of the shootings which resulted in the deaths of 14 people - the book is already being hailed as “momentous” and “wonderful”.

'On Bloody Sunday', by Julieann Campbell.

In it, survivors, relatives, eyewitnesses and politicians shine a light on the events of Bloody Sunday, together, for the first time.

While many buried the trauma of the day, Julieann - whose teenage uncle was the first to be killed that day - felt the need to keep recording these interviews, and collecting rare and unpublished accounts, aware of just how precious they were.

Her tireless efforts are what ‘On Bloody Sunday’ is all about.

As they tell their stories, the tension, confusion and anger build with an awful power. ‘On Bloody Sunday’ unfolds before us an extraordinary human drama, as we experience one of the darkest moments in modern history - and witness the true human cost of conflict.

Among those heaping praise on the new book are Michael Mansfield QC, the barrister who represented a number of the families at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

He describes it as “a momentous chronicle, timely and vital, which highlights that the burden of change rests, as always, upon the shoulders of those who suffered and, yet, have nurtured the desire that lessons be learned.”

Also among its backers is Jimmy McGovern, the BAFTA-winning screenwriter and creator of ‘Sunday’, a 2002 TV drama based round the events of January 30, 1972.

He says of the new volume: “It’s a wonderful book. The technique used - multiple voices speaking directly to us - is very simple but it has a profound effect.

“It puts us into the middle of the chaos of Bloody Sunday and keeps us there throughout the grief and anger that follow. A wonderful, wonderful book.”