Sheehy traveled to Northern Ireland in 1972 to report on the Irish women involved in the Irish civil rights movement . Margaret Thatcher 's government had created the Special Powers Act that allowed British soldiers to round up Catholic men . The women and family members left behind became fierce fighters . She was next to a young boy right after a march and as British soldiers moved in when the boy was struck in the face by a bullet . That day , January 30 , 1972 , became known as Bloody Sunday or the Bogside Massacre . Sheehy was trapped inside a Catholic ghetto which was under the authority of the IRA . She made her escape in a car over pastureland to Dublin . There Sheehy traveled to several safe houses and interviewed Rita O'Hare . The whole experience affected Sheehy deeply and on her return to the States she had a difficult time writing the story and developed a fear of airplanes which she later described as PSTD or posttraumatic stress syndrome
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday (1972)
Gail Sheehy