Tomorrow marks 50 years since the Bogside Massacre, also known as Bloody Sunday, which has been considered the worst mass shooting in Northern Irish history. On January 30, 1972, in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, Members of the British Army’s Parachute Regiment opened fire on Catholic demonstrators in the Bogside, killing 13 men and injuring 14 others.

The event unfolded before hundreds of witnesses and media outlets, consequently, In the eyes of the public and the press, civilians were killed by the state.

Bloody Sunday has been regarded as one of the most significant events of ‘The Troubles’, which lasted 30 years, as it fuelled Northern Irish hostility towards the British Army. Local support and recruitment into the IRA grew as a result of the massacre and this worsened the conflict.

In 1988 Lord Saville of Newidigate launched a 12-year inquiry to reinvestigate the incident. Following the investigation, Saville’s report in 2012 was made public and he concluded that the killings were “unjustified”. This promoted Prime Minister David Cameron to make a formal apology on behalf of the UK.

50 years after the horror of Bloody Sunday, several flags of the British Army’s Parachute Regiment, are hung from lamp posts in the city in the run-up to the commemorations. Something that has become an annual ritual, where family and friends of the 13 victims who died gather and mark the event.