80s Song of the Week - U2 "Bloody Sunday"

I've been lagging on updating my 80s Song of the Week blogs. For those who know me or have been reading my blogs, they know I love my 80s New Wave music. Well, I'm back!

When I was a teen and this song came out I always really liked it. It was back when mega-group U2 was young and raw, their music not slick and overproduced like nowadays (don't get me wrong, I still like and appreciate them). But I could feel that it was bigger than just a pop tune by its lyrics and militia-like drum rhythms and guitar riffs. But I must admit that I did not really understand what "Bloody Sunday" was. (How could anyone unless they had a specific connection to the horror of it??)

I believe we skimmed over it in a paragraph in World History in high school, but it was not until my 20s that I looked more into it. And when I started dating Patrick he showed me the movie portraying the senseless tragedy in Derry of 14 civilian deaths during a peaceful, unarmed civil rights march on January 30, 1972 - 4 months before I was born.

I think the Irish band U2, along with this particular song and video featuring parts of the movie are absolutely appropriate in my having returned from a wonderful and fascinating trip to both Occupied Ireland and the Republic. Things have come far it seems with the demilitarization of the border and absence of the British Army, but, as P's father mentioned, someone stole a car and set it on fire behind the Catholic church in their town the night before our arrival. Coincidence? An accident?