As most of you know, since 1921 the six northern most counties of Ireland have been known as 'Northern Ireland', are governed by Britain and were initially heavily Protestant as a result. The rest of the country was mostly Catholic, and in their name, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) fought the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) (disbanded in 1922) and all forms of British rule in Northern Ireland endlessly in a seemingly futile attempt to reunify the country.
The song "Sunday Bloody Sunday" [video | lyrics] gets its name from the two separate Bloody Sunday's in Irish history. The first occurred on July 10, 1921 and involved the killing of 16 people, some from each side, in the IRA vs RIC violence. The second happened on January 30, 1972 when the British murdered 26 unarmed Catholic protesters during a march after a gate was broken down.
They don't really seem to reference any particular events from the Bloody Sunday's other than general violence, but the lyrics pretty clearly state that they aren't taking sides on the issue of the IRA vs Britain:
"But I won't heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall"
This battle has been going on for such a long time U2 effectively invokes these terrible events to show that they are only the worst tragedies of this long and ongoing battle that has killed thousands. He also quotes a couple Bible verses and mentions Jesus in an attempt to reach the audience on spiritual level as well as emotional.
"And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart [Matthew 10:35
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die [Corinthians 15:32]
To claim the victory Jesus won"
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