Study Guide to "Sunday Bloody Sunday"

This lyric is about the speaker`s reflection and response to the social event happened in Derry (aka. Londonderry), Northern Ireland on Feb. 1972.

About "Sunday Bloody Sunday" in War (1983)
The lead singer of U2 Bono talked about the idea of the album "War" (which "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was first released):

‘More than any other record, "War" is right for its time. It is a slap in the face against the snap, crackle and pop. Everyone else is getting more and more style-orientated, more and more slick. John Lennon was right about that kind of music; he called it `wallpaper music.'Very pretty, very well designed, music to eat your breakfast to. Music can be more. Its possibilities are great. Music has changed me. It has the ability to change a generation. Look at what happened with Vietnam. Music changed a whole generation`s attitude towards war.'

Bono`s words esstentially revealed U2`s perspective of war, conflicts, and violence singing to thetune of rock music .
The modern history and social turbulence in the mid-20 century have changedpeople`s view of their world . War represents U2`s view of international conflicts, including NorthernIreland. Rock music, for U2, is not simply a way of music for entertainment but more important and seriously treated as social/political implications or act to the world.

About Bloody Sunday 1972 and "Sunday and Bloody Sunday"

At frist we could go back to the history of Northern Ireland in the 1970s.
Please see the brief history of / Bloody Sunday 1972 (Wikipedia)

After Bloody Sunday 1972, lots of songs and poems are dedicated to the victims and to this miserable event. Thomas Kinsella, Irish
poet, is the first one to write down his response to Bloody Sunday in his poem "Butcher`s Dozen." In the following, John Lennon and
Ono released their reactions to this event in the song "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (in the album Some time in the New York City)

The last two stanza of the lyric states the action/reaction to the conflicts in the Northern Ireland:

And it`s true we are immune
When fact is fiction and TV reality.
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die.

The real battle just begun
To claim the victory Jesus won

Study Questions to "Sunday Bloody Sunday"

1. Read the lyric of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and talk about images or scenes in it.
2. Please read it aloud and talk about its rhyme.
3. Consider the context of Northern Ireland conflicts in the 1970s and re-read this lyric again.
4. Listen to the song and try to explain the tune of violin and drumbeat in the words of "Sunday Bloody Sunday."
5.Read the last two stanza of the lyric and talk about the speaker`s fury in the words.
6. Try to read Kinsella`s "Butcher`s Dozen" and Lennon`s "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and compare these three implications of Bloody Sunday 1972.