Stephanie Iken, Attorney at Law

Sunday Bloody Sunday appears on Some Time In New York City as one of John Lennon’s most explicit political statements. Written with Yoko Ono and recorded in early 1972, the song responds directly to Bloody Sunday in Derry, Northern Ireland, when British soldiers opened fire on unarmed civil rights demonstrators.

The song does not attempt to universalize the event or soften its context. Lennon names what happened, where it happened, and who he believed was responsible: The British.

The event behind the song

Bloody Sunday took place on January 30, 1972, during a civil rights march in Derry. British Army soldiers fired on unarmed protesters and bystanders. Twenty-six people were shot. Fourteen men died as a result of their injuries, several after being shot in the back.

For Lennon, the massacre demanded a response that was more specific than anything he had written before. Although he had already composed The Luck Of The Irish in late 1971, he felt that Bloody Sunday required a separate, immediate statement. Sunday Bloody Sunday became the final song written for Some Time In New York City.

Writing in real time

Lennon described his creative process for the song as instinctive rather than calculated. Living in New York at the time, he reacted to the news as it reached him, translating outrage directly into music:

“Most other people express themselves by shouting or playing football at the weekend. But me, here I am in New York and I hear about the 13 people shot dead in Ireland, and I react immediately. And being what I am, I react in four-to-the-bar with a guitar break in the middle.”

The quote captures the urgency of the song. Sunday Bloody Sunday was not built to persuade gently or invite consensus. It was built to register shock and anger while the event was still unfolding in public consciousness.

Political clarity and personal identification

The lyrics place Lennon squarely inside the conflict. He speaks as an ally of Irish republicanism and addresses British authority directly, referencing banned marches, political representation, and the legacy of colonial control. Lennon took on a role that many listeners found uncomfortable, particularly given that he had never lived in Ireland and had recently left England for good.

That identification, however, was rooted in his own history. Lennon often spoke about Liverpool’s Irish population and his family’s Irish ancestry. In 1971, he described his personal connection to Ireland in deeply emotional terms:

“I’m a quarter Irish or half Irish or something, and long, long before the trouble started, I told Yoko that’s where we’re going to retire… We went around Ireland a bit and we stayed in Ireland and we had a sort of second honeymoon there. So I was completely involved in Ireland.”

The song reflects that sense of connection and love of Ireland.

Violence, pacifism, and contradiction

Lennon’s political position in the early 1970s was not simple, and Sunday Bloody Sunday shows some of that inner turmoil. He had long identified as a pacifist, yet struggled publicly with the realities of violent resistance movements. In September 1971, months before Bloody Sunday, he said:

“I understand why they’re doing it, and if it’s a choice between the IRA or the British army, I’m with the IRA. But if it’s a choice between violence and non-violence, I’m with non-violence… It’s a very delicate line.”

That ambivalence runs beneath the song. Sunday Bloody Sunday condemns state violence without offering a clean resolution.

Sunday Bloody Sunday was recorded between February 13 and March 8, 1972, several weeks after Paul McCartney had already recorded and released Give Ireland Back to the Irish. Lennon’s response reached the studio later, and it arrived as part of the larger Some Time In New York City sessions rather than as a standalone single.

Aftermath and commitment

Sunday Bloody Sunday received little to no mainstream radio support in the UK. The BBC did not play the song, citing its explicit political content and direct treatment of the Northern Ireland conflict, effectively keeping it off the air without the formal, public ban that had accompanied McCartney’s earlier single.

Lennon and Ono reinforced the song’s intent through action: they donated their royalties from Sunday Bloody Sunday and The Luck Of The Irish to civil rights organizations in Ireland and New York.