Bloody Sunday, also referred to as the Bogside Massacre, took place on January 30, 1972, in Derry, Northern Ireland, when British soldiers shot 28 unarmed civilians protesting against internment. A total of 14 people died.
An image of the ad was first posted on Twitter by a user who saw it at one McDonald’s location in Portugal.
"When promoting its Halloween Sundae ice cream, McDonald's Portugal developed a local market activation for a small number of its restaurants in Portugal,” a spokesperson for McDonald’s said in a recent statement.
"The campaign was intended as a celebration of Halloween, not as an insensitive reference to any historical event or to upset or insult anyone in any way,” the statement added.
This is not the first time reference to the massacre has caused an outcry.
A London bar apologized back in 2013 for serving a “Sundae Bloody Sundae” cocktail with a toy soldier.