There are two Bloody Sundays in Irish history. The first was in 1920 when British troops fired into the crowd at a football match in Dublin in retaliation for the killing of British undercover agents. The second was on January 30, 1972, when British troops killed 13 Irish citizens at a civil rights protest in Derry, Northern Ireland. The song is more about the second Bloody Sunday, which had a profound impact on U2 frontman Bono, who was 11 years old at the time.
The lyrics are a nonpartisan condemnation of the historic bloodshed in Ireland - politics is not something you want to discuss there. Bono's lyrics in the song are more about interpersonal struggles than about the actual Bloody Sunday events.
Bono usually introduces this at concerts by saying, "This is not a rebel song." He started this tradition when the band performed at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado in 1983. The band had taken a lot of heat for the song from all sides of the political divide and Bono didn't want it appropriated for anything but peace, so he felt the disclaimer was necessary.
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