Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, a massacre of 14 unarmed civilians by British soldiers at a protest in Northern Ireland. The initial investigation by the British government was a whitewash in which they let themselves off the hook. A much later second investigation repudiated the first and resulted in a formal government apology.
Bloody Sunday was a key moment in The Troubles and resulted in a surge of recruitment for the IRA. Come Out Ye Black and Tans was written in the late 1920s, set in Dublin, and references the Irish War of Independence, but its most famous recording and the one below was released the same year as Bloody Sunday. (The better-known Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2 directly references Bloody Sunday.)
I don’t have a dog in the fight, or a firm enough grounding in the history to have strong opinion on British-Irish relations, but I can’t help but love the sheer belligerence and obstinacy of the song.
You can find every video featured in 2022 for Music Monday here.
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