An anti @-@ internment protest organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association ( NICRA ) at Magilligan Camp in January 1972 was met with violence from the 1st Battalion , The Parachute Regiment ( 1 Para ) . NICRA had organised a march from the Creggan to Derry city centre , in defiance of a ban , on the following Sunday , 30 January 1972 . Both IRAs were asked , and agreed , to suspend operations on that day to ensure the march passed off peacefully . The British Army erected barricades around the Free Derry area to prevent marchers from reaching the city centre . On the day , march organisers turned the march away from the barriers and up to Free Derry Corner , but some youths proceeded to the barrier at William Street and stoned soldiers . Troops from 1 Para then moved into Free Derry and opened fire , killing thirteen people , all of whom were subsequently found to be unarmed . A fourteenth shooting victim died four months later in June 1972 . Like the killing of Cusack and Beattie the previous year , Bloody Sunday had the effect of hugely increasing recruitment to the IRA , even among people who previously would have been ' moderates ' .