During a dispute over the conduct of British soldiers on Bloody Sunday on the day before , Independent Socialist MP Bernadette Devlin punched the Conservative Party Home Secretary Reginald Maudling . Her aggression was in response to the comments made by Maudling , who was maintaining that the British Army had fired at Bloody Sunday protesters in self-defence , contrary to the testimonies of civilian eyewitnesses ( including Devlin herself ) . She argued that she was being denied the right to speak . Her actions resulted in her being banned from the House of Commons for six months
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday (1972)
Legislative violence