Christy Moore adapts Bloody Sunday tribute

The song, from his 1996 record ‘Graffiti Tongue’, was written in memory of those killed on Bloody Sunday in Derry on January 30, 1972.

“The Abbey theatre and the GAA are memorialising the Croke Park massacre in November 1920...they contacted me and asked me did I have a song. I did write a song about Bloody Sunday in Derry and they asked me would I be able to adapt it and I was honoured to be asked,” he told Newstalk radio.

On November 21, 1920 British forces opened fire at a football match between Tipperary and Dublin in Croke Park killing 14 people. Among the civilians killed was Tipperary player Michael Hogan. The massacre happened during the War of Independence. Earlier that day the IRA had targeted and killed a number of British agents and military personnel.

The lyrics of ‘Minds Locked Shut’ include the lines: ‘It happened on a Sunday afternoon; On a lovely bright crisp winter’s afternoon; On a perfect day for walking; There was gunshots, stones and bullets; On a lovely bright crisp winter’s afternoon; There was chaos, panic and death; Disbelief upon the faces; Fear and bewilderment....”

In his 1996 recording Christy recites the names of those killed in the Bogside in 1972. This weekend he remembered the names of the 14 who died in Croke Park.