Bloody Sunday (1920) - Misconceptions

Misconceptions

• The Croke Park Massacre on the afternoon of Bloody Sunday is usually blamed on the Auxiliaries. While the police raiding party was composed in part of Temporary Cadets from Depot Company and commanded by an Auxiliary officer, Major Mills, eyewitness reports make it clear that 'Black and Tans' did most of the shooting at Croke Park.
• The film Michael Collins shows an armoured car driving onto the pitch. This did not happen: the armoured car in question was outside the ground and seems to have fired into the air, rather than at the crowd. The director, Neil Jordan, later stated that he changed the scene because showing policemen do the shooting would have made it "too terrifying" for the film's tone.
• It is often thought that two players were killed when accounts say two were shot at. Hogan and Egan were both fired on, but Egan was uninjured. He was subsequently killed during the Civil War.
• It is sometimes claimed that British officers tossed a coin over whether they would go on a killing spree in Croke Park or loot Sackville Street (Dublin's main street, now called O'Connell Street) instead: see, for example, Ernie O'Malley, "Bloody Sunday," Dublin's Fighting Story 1916–1921 (Tralee: The Kerryman, 1949); but there is no evidence to support this claim.