|
|
|
2 - 5
FEBRUARY 2004
Evidence heard
This week the Inquiry heard from the following witnesses:
Ivan Cooper; Kevin Martin; PIRA 14 (Provisional IRA, Donegal, 1972); PIRA 23 (Provisional IRA, Creggan 1972); OIRA 11 (Official IRA, Creggan, 1972) and Margaret Smyth.
Summary of Evidence
Monday 2 February 2004 Ivan Cooper
Tuesday 3 February 2004 Ivan Cooper, Kevin Martin
Wednesday 4 February 2004 PIRA 14
Thursday 5 February 2004 PIRA 23, OIRA 11, Margaret Smyth
A full transcript of the proceedings is available at http://www.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org.uk.
Numbers in square brackets refer to the code given to a particular document by the Inquiry.
INTRODUCTION
This week the Inquiry heard from Ivan Cooper, a former Stromont MP and Civil Rights activist. PIRA 14 was a senior Provisional IRA officer based in the south of Ireland. He saw Hugh Gilmour shot. PIRA 23 and OIRA 11 were both in the Creggan when the Paras entered the Bogside but went down to find out what had happened. Witness X was subpoenaed to give evidence but failed to appear.
Ivan Cooper
Member of Parliament (Stormont) for Mid Derry 1972.
Made Statements to the Inquiry on 4 December 1999 [KC0012.0014], 12 April 2002 [KC0012.0081], 19 August 2002 [KC0012.0095], and 2003 [KC0012.0108]
Ivan Cooper was active in the Civil Rights movement in Derry in 1968. He helped set up the Derry Citizens’ Action Committee (DCAC) in October 1968. In 1969 he was elected to represent Mid Derry at Stormont. He said that as a result of the election of three Civil Rights MPs in 1969 and other concessions the DCAC was on the wane by 1970. However the introduction of internment without trial in August 1971 created another upsurge in activity. He was himself arrested with John Hume MP in August 1971 by soldiers led by Paddy Ashdown (who subsequently became an MP in England and leader of the Liberal Democrats). The arrests led to a legal challenge to the army’s powers of arrest in Northern Ireland (Hume v Londonderry Justices).
Mr. Cooper was present at the Magilligan demonstration the week before Bloody Sunday and was struck on the head by a rubber bullet fired by a sergeant in the Parachute Regiment. He said the march failed because it was diverted onto the beach. The intention had been for people to handcuff themselves to the gates of the internment camp.
Multiple Marches
Mr. Cooper said he played a minor role in the arrangements for the demonstration on 30 January 1972. He spoke to local organisers and Kevin McCorry. The original plan had been to have several marches converging from different areas in the city. However Chief Superintendent Lagan expressed concerns about the proposal to have a march from the Waterside. He feared it being attacked by Loyalists. There was also concern about the proposed march from Shantallow because of the large Protestant community nearby. Mr. Cooper described Mr. Lagan as fair minded. He said he did not think Mr. Lagan knew whether the police or the army would be in control on the day.
Mr. Cooper said he was concerned about the lack of arrangements which had been made for stewarding. The march was expected to be very large but there were neither enough stewards nor enough training for his liking.
Mr. Cooper said John Hume and Gerry Fitt opposed the march. Mr. Hume was concerned that the behaviour of the Paras at Magilligan would be repeated in Derry.
IRA Assurances
Mr. Cooper said one of his concerns was the IRA might use the march as an opportunity to attack the security forces. He said that there had not been a large Civil Rights march for some time and that since the marches of 1968 and 1969 IRA activity in the city had increased. He was therefore anxious to obtain assurances from the IRA that they would permit the march to remain entirely peaceful. Through Paddy Devlin he arranged to meet representatives of the Provisional IRA. A few days before the march he met the officer commanding the Provisional IRA in Derry (PIRA 24) together with PIRA 17 and two others. He explained his concerns and asked that they give an assurance that there would be no IRA activity. He said he received such an undertaking two days later on the Thursday before the march. The Provisional IRA rang him to say there would be a direction that there were to be no IRA weapons in the Bogside.
Mr. Cooper said he did not know when he had first made public that he had had this dialogue with the IRA before Bloody Sunday. He said he told others within the SDLP before the march and would have advised Kevin McCorry of the situation. He believed he had spoken of the IRA assurance before his interview for Secret History in 1992. The only other reference available to the Inquiry is in the Sunday Times Interview Notes (see below) where it is recorded that Mr. Cooper said he spoke to the Provisional IRA OC on Saturday 29 January 1972 [KC0012.0068]. The Sunday Times Insight team also recorded PIRA 11 as having said Paddy Devlin and Ivan Cooper had asked that weapons be kept out of the Bogside [M0045.0035].
Official IRA
Mr. Cooper also spoke informally to two members of the Official IRA. At the time they were a very small organisation with very few people on the ground and diminishing rapidly. He spoke to Red Mickey Doherty and OIRA 1. They did not give any undertakings at the meeting but Mr. Cooper said his belief was that they also did not intend to exploit the march. He said he was not the only person to have made representations to the IRA. Bridget Bond, Father O’Neil and businessmen also did so. All the feed back suggested the IRA would not interfere.
He said Mr. Lagan had told him on the Saturday that there would be a barrier placed in William Street to prevent the march reaching the Guildhall. Consequently a decision was taken to re-route the march by turning right down Rossville Street and to hold a meeting at Free Derry Corner. The purpose of the meeting was to distract people from any possible confrontation in William Street.
30 January 1972
Mr. Cooper was at Bishop’s Field when the march assembled. He remembers speaking to William McKinney, James Wray and James Wray’s father amongst others. Mr. Cooper was asked about lack of stewards at the junction of Rossville Street and William Street. He insisted there were stewards stationed there but there were too few. He followed the march round into Rossville Street but turned back when he realised young men had continued on along William Street towards the army barrier. He went back to help the stewards.
Barrier 14
Mr. Cooper said there were two types of people who headed on to the barrier. There were youths who wanted a confrontation with the security forces and others who simply wanted to observe what was happening. The majority of the march headed down Rossville Street to Free Derry Corner. Stone throwing began at barrier 14 and the army replied with rubber bullets. There was CS gas in the air and before he left he saw the water cannon being brought forward. He left hoping to get the meeting started at Free Derry Corner and draw people away.
Free Derry Corner
Mr. Cooper said he was helped onto the platform at Free Derry Corner and saw army vehicles at the top of Rossville Street. He thought they were stationary but agreed they could have been the lead vehicles of the convoy. As Bernadette Devlin began speaking he heard the sound of gunfire. At first he assumed it was rubber bullets but he then saw strike marks on the road to his left and Bernadette Devlin said “that’s lead”. He then realised the army was firing live rounds. He said had it been rubber bullets people would have been scrambling to collect them, instead they were running in panic.
Mr. Cooper said there was some difficulty in getting Lord Brockway off the back of the coal lorry. He was then pinned to the ground in front of the lorry as bullets struck the wall above him. He felt there were around 25 shots fired from the north and also from the city walls. He could not say why he felt there was fire from the city walls that was just the impression he had. He was sure at the time it was coming from more than one direction. He agreed he could have been hearing the gunfire in the Rossville Flats car park.
He saw soldiers in Rossville Street adjacent to Kells Walk firing from a kneeling position. There were others who moved ahead of them and fired from the hip. He saw army vehicles in Rossville Street and about 12 soldiers at Kells Walk. The soldiers were not taking cover.
He felt very exposed. People behind Block 1 of the Rossville Flats called to him to move towards them. He therefore began crawling north towards them. He did not see anyone shot or fall at the rubble barricade but was aware of people who appeared to be injured. There were one or two people carried away. As he crawled towards Block 1 he said there were bullets spitting around him. He felt he was under fire from soldiers at the low wall at the south of Kells Walk.
Bernard McGuigan
As he got to within about 50 feet of the telephone box behind Block 1 Mr. Cooper saw Bernard McGuigan. He was distressed and shouting that a man had been shot. He was waving a cloth and stepped out from the lea of Block 1. There was then a crack and he fell. Mr. Cooper said he could not tell where the shot had come from. There was a woman screaming at the top of her voice as he ran towards where Mr. McGuigan fell. A woman paced a cloth over Mr. McGuigan’s head. He did not see Hugh Gilmore’s body.
He saw two soldiers half way up the pram ramp at the south end of Kells Walk as he crossed Rossville Street.
Glenfada Park North
Mr. Cooper said he could not be certain of the sequence but at some point he was in Glenfada Park North. People were in shock and panicking. There were people crammed behind the wooden fences. Whilst he was in Glenfada Park he heard shooting and saw a body covered by a coat. People shouted at him to do something. There were people around the body.
Someone then said there was a call for him in one of the flats. There were not many telephones in the Bogside at the time. He was known to be a good friend of the McLenaghans and this was probably why he had been called there. He went into Mrs. McLenaghan’s flat at 7 Glenfada Park, on the first floor at the north east corner, where he spoke to the Provisional IRA OC. He asked Mr. Cooper if it was right that people had been killed. He then said the deal was off and they were coming in. Mr. Cooper said he never leant what the IRA had done thereafter.
He said the shooting had intensified as he left the flat. He remembers seeing soldiers at the east side of Colombcille Court as he descended the pram ramp. However the shooting seemed to be coming from the south of Glenfada Park North. He remembers three bodies in Glenfada Park North.
Altnagelvin
He then walked south towards Westland Street and went into John Hume’s house. On the way he heard shooting which sounded different to the army high velocity gunfire. He and Mr. Hume took a car belonging to a neighbour, Otto Schlindwein, to drive to Altnagelvin hospital. On route they were stopped at the Craigavon Bridge by RUC officers saying things like “10 – nil”. At the hospital he saw Paras carry bodies out of a Saracen into the hospital. The bodies were then brought out again and put back in the vehicle, presumably to be taken to the mortuary. At the hospital he spoke to John Johnston, who had been shot, and Jackie Duddy’s sisters, who were looking for their brother. He also saw Michael Bradley. He then went back to John Hume’s house from where he spoke to the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Jack Lynch on the telephone.
Statements
Mr. Cooper did not make a statement of any kind in 1972. He said he had no part in arranging for statements to be taken, this was done by NICRA. When he saw that Lord Widgery was a former army officer he decided he would not be impartial and took no part in his inquiry.
Mr. Cooper said in his statement that the IRA had not been particularly active prior to Bloody Sunday. He was asked by Christopher Clarke QC, counsel to the Inquiry, about figures produced by Brigadier McClellan to the Widgery Tribunal. Brigadier McClellan claimed there had been 80 shooting incidents, with 319 rounds fired at the security forces and 84 nail bombs thrown in the two weeks before Bloody Sunday. Mr. Cooper said he did not know but would not accept at face value figures proffered to the Widgery Tribunal by the army. He said there was very little support for the IRA in Derry before Bloody Sunday.
Sunday Times/John Barry Notes [KC0012.0065]
The editor of the Sunday Times Insight Team in 1972, John Barry, claims to have conducted a lengthy interview with Mr. Cooper after publication of their article about Bloody Sunday in April 1972. The Inquiry has 8 pages of detailed notes which purport to record what Mr. Cooper told him. Mr. Cooper denies ever having been interviewed by anyone from the Sunday Times and claims the notes are a fabrication. He claimed the majority of what is contained in the notes is inaccurate. Christopher Clarke QC therefore took Mr. Cooper through the notes line by line and Mr. Cooper specifically denied the following.
Chief Superintendent Lagan
Mr. Cooper said he did not believe Mr. Lagan mentioned Brigadier McClellan during any of their conversations but agreed the note was correct in stating that Mr. Lagan did not believe in stopping marches. Mr. Cooper did not lack faith in the local Civil Rights Association and denied being at a meeting which voted not to go ahead with the planned march from Shantallow.
Mr. Cooper said he knew nothing of any IRA plan to kill Mr. Lagan and denied intervening to stop it. He denied being on good terms with PIRA 24. They had only met once or twice. He did know PIRA 11 but had never been run out of New Lodge Road, Belfast by him. He was not at Hogg’s Folly on the morning of Bloody Sunday and did not see PIRA 17 loading guns into a car.
Blood Soaked Handkerchief
He also denied knowing a Mrs. Rudden or being handed a blood soaked handkerchief. The suggestion is corroborated by Phyllis Hyman [AH0104.0001] who says Mr. Cooper showed the handkerchief to the crowd before the main shooting began and said it had been used to tend to a boy who had been wounded earlier. Mr. Cooper insisted it had not happened.
Martin McGuinness/George McEvoy
Mr. Cooper said the description of Martin McGuinness, George McEvoy and PIRA 17 being trapped in a house in William Street when the Paras went in was a total fabrication and he had never be told of such a story. He said he was not aware that Mr. McEvoy was ever in the IRA or the Provo intelligence officer. He also denied seeing bombs and weapons in Mr. McEvoy’s car or that Mr. McEvoy was furious with Martin McGuinness. He said he knew nothing about seeing three Provisional IRA cars loaded with weapons in Meenan Park. He denied seeing anyone with a brand new Carbine or seeing any civilians with weapons at any time on Bloody Sunday. In his statement to the Inquiry Mr. McEvoy refers to Mr. Cooper as a “fantastic liar” and an alcoholic. His opinion is that Mr. Cooper made up the things recorded in the Sunday Times notes to make himself sound important [AM0208.0002].
Hugh Logue
Hugh Logue, a former SDLP colleague of Mr. Cooper’s, has said in a supplemental statement to the Inquiry [KL0002.0043] that he heard the story about George McEvoy being armed on Bloody Sunday from Mr. Cooper or someone close to him. He added the Mr. Cooper had a reputation for telling tall tales and the story should be taken with a pinch of salt. Mr. Cooper said Mr. Logue was an honest man but was mistaken in believing he heard the story from him.
Meenan Square/Bogside Inn
Mr. Cooper repeatedly denied ever being in Meenan Square or behind the Bogside Inn where he is alleged to have seen members of both the Official and Provisional IRA. He did say he saw members of the Official IRA in Glenfada Park North. Several witnesses claim to have seen Mr. Cooper including Margo Collins [Day 122, page 157] and Seamus Duffy [Day 189, page 109]. Mr. Duffy says he saw Mr. Cooper speaking to 3 Official IRA men including Reg Tester. Mr. Cooper said he had never met Mr. Tester.
Pillow Cases
He denied the suggestion that he had gone into a house to get pillow cases to use to tend the wounded. This is recorded not only in the Sunday Times notes but also in other contemporary news articles where Mr. Cooper is quoted as saying he and a friend were fired on whilst tending to the wounded and waving a white pillow case [Irish Independent 31 January 1972, L0050].
Derry’s Sharpeville
He also said he could not remember referring to Bloody Sunday as Derry’s Sharpeville (alluding to the massacre in the South African township of that name). Several witnesses refer to hearing him say this (Jack Nash [AN0027.0003]) and the quote is attributed to him in several newspapers, including the Irish Independent. He said he did not speak to any reporters on Bloody Sunday. He was too busy at the hospital trying to find out what had happened to do interviews.
Bernard McGuigan
Mr. Cooper insisted he had seen Bernard McGuigan shot rather than arrived just afterwards. This suggestion appears in both the Sunday Times notes and the interview he gave to the BBC’s Secret History Programme broadcast on 20 January 1992 [transcript KC0012.0031].
Dr. McCabe
He also repeatedly denied ringing Dr. McCabe or Dr. McDermott in an attempt to get medical assistance for the injured. However Dr. McCabe says his wife rang him at his surgery to say Mr. Cooper had called her looking for him [AM0051.0014].
Provos
Mr. Cooper said he had known PIRA 14 since he was young but was not aware he was an officer in the Provisional IRA. He also knew PIRA 17 but not well. He said he had never spoken to PIRA 24 before 25 January 1972 and did not recall speaking to him after the telephone call he received on Bloody Sunday.
Other Press Reports
Mr. Cooper denied telling Don Mullen of Ireland on Sunday (6 June 2001 [KC0012.0094]) that the Sunday Times journalists would not maintain their notes as genuine when they gave evidence to the Inquiry.Mr. Cooper also denied telling the Irish Times in 1972 [L0069.0002] that he heard a burst of machine gun fire when the Paras opened fire or that nail bombs had been thrown earlier in the day. He said the information reported in his name had not come from him.
Kevin Martin
Made Statements to Michael Havord on 31 January 1972 [AM0025.0001] and to this Inquiry on 17 March 2003 [AM0025.0002]
Mr. Martin was 17 years old on Bloody Sunday. He said he had been involved in rioting before Bloody Sunday and described himself as an experienced rioter. He was generally socialist and opposed to British occupation of Derry but said he was not really political. He was innocent and naïve. He rioted against the army because they were alien to him. He said he did not realise at the time that the rioting he engaged in was stupid and dangerous. It was just what they did at the time. They called the weekly riots the Saturday matinee. He said there were usually a core of 50-200 rioters. Generally they just threw stones but he had seen petrol bombs and very occasionally nail bombs thrown.
Mr. Martin said the Civil Rights movement was dying out by 1971 and there was a growing anti-British army movement. This consisted of rioting and attacks on security forces. His view was that at the time before Bloody Sunday the IRA were under equipped. He said he was not particularly interested in them however he knew some of them as did many others. He said the situation in Derry was much less serious than that in Belfast. Gunfire was rare, he had only experienced IRA gunmen firing after a riot on one or two occasions. He described someone turning up unannounced with an old rifle or Thompson and shouting “Scatter”. He said the crowd was not choreographed, they were just told to get out of the way. He said shooting at the army during a riot was much more common in Belfast.
Mr. Martin said he knew Shane O’Doherty in 1972. They were at college together. However he did not know he was in the IRA. He also knew of the Fianna but said he was unaware Gerry O’hEara was a leading member. He knew Gerry O’hEara well.
Magilligan
Mr. Martin was not at Magilligan but heard about what had happened. He said his view at the time was that the experienced rioters had not been there and this was why the marchers had been attacked. He and others saw Bloody Sunday as an opportunity to get their own back. They saw the Paras as a challenge.
30 January 1972
Mr. Martin went on the march with friends including Sean McCarron. However by the time he was involved in the rioting at barrier 14 in William Street they had become separated. He remembers being behind corrugated iron shields used as protection from rubber bullets. He left William Street to look for stones to throw; these were in very short supply. However once in Chamberlain Street he decided to head south towards the Rossville Flats. The riot in William Street was dwindling and he was bored.
He came out of the end of Chamberlain Street and crossed the Rossville Flats car park towards the gap between Blocks 1 and 2. He did not see any army vehicles as he did so. He said the suggestion in his contemporaneous statement that he was at the barrier when the Paras came in was an embellishment. So too was the reference to hearing gunfire whilst in Chamberlain Street.
Rubble Barricade
He came out onto Rossville Street and stood some distance south of the rubble barricade. It was only then that he heard the army pigs coming down Rossville Street. He said as soon as they stopped Paras jumped out and started firing. He said it took him a few seconds to realise they were firing live rounds. He saw some of them take up firing positions at the low wall at the south end of Kells Walk. He then dropped to the ground and heard bullets striking the road.
IRA Gunman
In his 1972 account Mr. Martin refers to seeing an IRA gunman fire a pistol. It is unclear where he is suggesting he saw this but he mentions being at the shops behind Block 2. He said this was after the army had started firing.
However he now says the reference to the gunman is another embellishment and that he saw no such thing. He says one of his friends had referred to seeing a gunman and he decided to say he had too. He said he was only 17 at the time and was telling a story. He said he did believe there was a gunman in the area but he did not see him. He said he just went along with his mates. However in his 1972 statement Sean McCarron makes no reference to having seen a gunman [AM0085.0012]. Mr. Martin said he had no idea at the time that his statement would end up being used in this Inquiry and he had not thought about the location of the gunman as being important.
He said the reference in the 1972 statement to being in a group of 30 who ran forward when the Paras came in could be correct but he did not remember it. However the reference to a boy in jeans and a denim jacket being shot next to him was also untrue. He had not seen this and did not help carry him to a house.
Michael Quinn
Mr. Martin said the part of his original statement which referred to a man who had been shot in the face was accurate and he identified a photograph of Michael Quinn as consistent with his recollection [EP0027.0012]. However the reference to a girl who had been shot in the leg was another embellishment.
PIRA 14
Senior Provisional IRA Officer, Irish Republic 1972.
Made Statement to the Inquiry on 4 February 2004 [APIRA0014.0001]
PIRA 14 was born in Derry and lived most of his life there. However in 1972 he was a senior Provisional IRA officer in the Republic. He was not part of the Derry Brigade. He appeared at the Inquiry reluctantly and in answer to a subpoena. He said his experiences meant he did not have any faith in the British judicial system and was suspicious of political influence over the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.
PIRA 14 was a member of the Official IRA before joining the Provisional IRA in 1970. He also joined the Derry Civil Rights Association in December 1969. He knew the officer commanding the Provisional IRA in Derry and also OIRA 3, the officer commanding the Official IRA on Bloody Sunday. He said he could not recall the previous Official IRA OC being arrested shortly before Bloody Sunday. He said he respected OIRA 3 and was able to speak with him to calm divisions between the two groups. He said the situation in Derry was not like that in Belfast where dialogue between the two factions was no longer possible.
PIRA 14 was not based in Derry and was not therefore party to discussions prior to Bloody Sunday as to what the Provisional IRA intended to do. However he said the standing orders from Dublin were for no one to carry weapons on a Civil Rights march and these orders were followed in Derry. PIRA 14 said he was in Derry on 30 January 1972 to participate in the march. He was not in any position of authority and on the day was answerable to the Derry command. There were no operations planned. These were the orders of the Derry OC and they were confirmed to him by Martin McGuinness on the Saturday.
There were no joint operations of any kind between the Official and Provisional IRA. The suggestion by Witness X that there was such an operation on Bloody Sunday was nonsense.
PIRA 14 said he was not personally aware of any assurances given to NICRA regarding IRA activity on the day but he believed an assurance was given that there would be no activity.
30 January 1972
PIRA 14 went on the march. He was unarmed. When he got into William Street he said he was aware of the confrontation occurring at barrier 14. He tried to persuade young lads not to get involved because he saw no sense in it. Some listened, others did not. He was with his younger brother (PIRA 26) and Colm Keenan. His brother was also in the IRA. They went down Rossville Street but then decided they wanted to see what was happening at the barrier in William Street. They went back up to the junction of William Street and Chamberlain Street and observed from there.
Barrier 14
PIRA 14 said there were photographers, including military photographers, at the barrier. They were anxious to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Orders were that no one was to put themselves in a position where they might be arrested because they were likely to be interned without trial.
Somewhere in the region of this junction they met Martin McGuinness and possibly Sean Keenan. However PIRA 14 said he may have met Sean Keenan elsewhere. It was not a planned meeting and they agreed there was no point in remaining in the area. Martin McGuinness was not armed so far as he was aware. PIRA 14 moved south down Chamberlain Street with his brother and Colm Keenan. There was no urgency, they had not heard any gunfire at that time.
Rossville Flats
When they got to the Rossville Flats car park they heard rumours that someone had been shot earlier but since they had not heard any gunfire PIRA 14 assumed the reports were exaggerated and that someone had probably been hit by a rubber bullet.
They made their way towards Free Derry Corner via the gap between Blocks 1 and 2. PIRA 14 saw Bernadette Devlin, Ivan Cooper and Lord Brockway on the platform. It was at this time that he heard some shots at the other end of Rossville Street. He assumed they were rubber bullets but there was a general sense of panic in the crowd. The three of them decided to go back up to the rubble barricade to see what was going on.
Rubble Barricade
When he got to the rubble barricade PIRA 14 heard people say others had been shot. He did not see anyone who had been shot but could see soldiers bailing out of armoured vehicles further north in Rossville Street. He was standing on the rubble barricade close to the wall of Block 1. The soldiers were heading towards the low wall at the south end of Kells Walk where others were already in position. The general flow of civilians was southwards but a group of 30-60 held their ground at the rubble barricade. Some were throwing stones but he saw no weapons. He did not see any run forward from the barricade.
PIRA 14 said he was also aware of soldiers at the northern end of Block 1. His brother then drew his attention to a soldier standing in the open near the Kells Walk wall. He saw this soldier fire in the direction of Free Derry Corner. He could not tell what he was firing at but he appeared to be aiming beyond the rubble barricade. PIRA 14 said the soldier was in the open and would have made an easy target for anyone with a rifle. He said he thought the soldier was tall and wearing a gas mask but he could not be sure. He may have been wearing a helmet.
Hugh Gilmore
Seconds later the soldier turned his rifle to point it towards where PIRA 14 was standing. At the same time a young man just in front of him and to his left threw a stone towards soldiers at the north end of Block 1. The man seemed very upset and PIRA 14 said his impression was that he had seen something which he (PIRA 14) had not. The soldier appeared to fire 2 more shots in rapid succession. He saw the gun recoil and was sure he had fired. At that moment the young man clutched his stomach in a spasm. He turned and ran south alongside Block 1. He said “I’m hit”. PIRA 14 said he now believes this was Hugh Gilmore. He did not know him at the time.
PIRA 14 said he could not believe what was happening and froze briefly. He then turned and ran. There were lots of shots at this time and he was conscious of bullets striking the ground to his left. There were at least 5 shots but he could not be precise. He saw Hugh Gilmore stumble as he got to the south end of Block 1 and people there pulled him round the corner.
Hugh Gilmore is pictured running along Block 1 [EP0023.0009A = P0441] and PIRA 14 identified the man in the centre with his back to the camera as Colm Keenan. PIRA 14 said he was out of sight to the left (north). He caught up with Mr. Gilmour behind Block 1. Someone had pulled up his shirt and he could see blood and entrails coming out of the right side of his stomach. The wound looked like an exit wound. He looked at his eyes, they rolled back and he knew he was dying. PIRA 14 said this was when the reality of the situation hit him. There was a young girl screaming hysterically.
PIRA 14 said to Colm “We better get out of here”. They ran south towards Joseph Place. There was total panic and confusion. As he ran he heard the crack of gunfire but did not know where it was coming from. They went to the lane behind Joseph Place. There people said there was gunfire from the city walls. He and Colm Keenan had a discussion about where to go. They had lost his brother by this time. When there was a lull in the shooting they decided to run for the Lecky Road. They went past the platform and headed for the Bogside Inn. There was still periodic gunfire which he assumed at the time to be coming from the city walls.
Bogside Inn
PIRA 14 said he assumed he would meet other Provisional IRA volunteers at the Bogside Inn. It was the obvious place to meet, there was no arrangement. He did not recall any of the command staff being there but there was a volunteer who went off to get instructions. The Stickies (Official IRA) arrived. There were probably 2 cars with about 5 men in each. Reg Tester was there.
Official IRA
PIRA 14 said Reg Tester and the other Stickies had rifles and went into the new flats on the north side of Westland Street. He may have said to Tester it was unwise to fire because there were still too many civilians in the area. In any event they did not fire. He knew this both because he did not hear any gunfire and because they spoke to him when they came out. He did not recall Reg Tester mentioning his gun had jammed.
At some point the runner came back and said they were to take no action. He did not see the OC or Martin McGuinness at the Bogside Inn. People were angry and commenting that they had not defended them. He felt guilty because he knew people had been murdered but there was nothing they could do. He remembers walking around in a daze and seeing blood stains on the ground as well as items of clothing, shoes and handbags left by people as they panicked to get away.
IRA Gunfire
PIRA 14 said he did not learn until later of the symbolic shooting from the Bogside Inn towards the city walls. He also learnt days later about the confrontation involving Sean Keenan and OIRA 1 in Colombcille Court. However at the time he did not know who was involved. He also learnt that Red Mickey Doherty had fired but was not aware he had been shot.
Photographs
Edwin Glasgow QC, representing many of the military witnesses, asked PIRA 14 if he recognised anyone else in the photographs of Hugh Gilmore [P0441/EP0023.0009 and E0014.0008]. PIRA 14 said he did not and could not see himself or his brother. Mr. Glasgow said Mr. White, who took P0441, and other photographers say they have mislaid other photographs of this aera. He asked if PIRA 14 knew anything of photographs being collected or destroyed by the IRA. PIRA 14 said he did not.
Pat Harkin
PIRA 14 identified the man in the centre of photograph P0837 as Pat Harkin. He said he was a Republican but did not know if he was in the IRA. He is now dead. Mr. Harkin is pictured being helped along by two other men, apparently unable to stand unaided.
PIRA 23
Officer Commanding Creggan Provisional IRA 1972
Made Statement to the Inquiry on 4 February 2004 [APIRA0023.0001]
In 1972 PIRA 23 was the officer in charge of the Creggan Company of the Provisional IRA. He said he thought at the time there were 4 sections in the Creggan comprising about 25 volunteers. There was also a Creggan quartermaster, adjutant and intelligence officer. PIRA 23 was not on the Derry command staff.
PIRA 23 said he had been to school with Michael McDaid and James Wray, both of whom were killed on Bloody Sunday.
30 January 1972
PIRA 23 said he was told the day before the march that he was to remain in the Creggan on 30 January 1972. He said he believed Provisional IRA intelligence was very good and had there been an army plan to enter the Creggan they would have known about it. There was no such plan so far as he was aware.
PIRA 23 said he patrolled with the quartermaster in one car whilst 4 volunteers were on patrol in another. Only the car with the 4 volunteers carried weapons. He believes these were a .303 rifle, an M1 carbine and a handgun. There was also a car parked as a standby with no one in it. There may have been 4 other unarmed volunteers patrolling on foot. They patrolled every day and Bloody Sunday was like any other. However the Derry officer commanding had ordered all other weapons to be sent to a dump under the control of the command staff quartermaster. He thinks this happened on the Saturday. His quartermaster told him about it. He understood there were to be no weapons in the Bogside because many thousands were expected on the march.
Orders were communicated by word of mouth on a need to know basis.
PIRA 23 said he watched the march assemble in the Creggan and head off down Southway. Then it all went quiet. He said he did not hear any shooting or even smell CS gas.
News of Shootings
PIRA 23 said the first news he had of what had happened was when two men in a car stopped on their way back from the Bogside. They stopped at the top of New Road (Eastway) and said two people had been shot. PIRA 23 got in the car and they took him to Stanley’s Walk. He knew he could find out more at the Provisional IRA base in Stanley’s Walk. PIRA 23 said he was there at about 16:50. He knows this because he looked at his watch. The command staff OC was there as was the Brandywell OC. Martin McGuinness was not. There was a brief meeting and it was apparent people had been killed. The OC referred to a killing frenzy. PIRA 23 said he had not been aware of the patrol in the Brandywell but they all knew none of their volunteers were involved in the shootings.
PIRA 23 was instructed to go back to the Creggan and stand by. He went back to the Creggan in a car belonging to the Bogside company. He did not go to the Bogside Inn or anywhere in the Bogside. He was driven to the Creggan Shops where all the Creggan volunteers would know to go. He was told later that the Creggan patrol car had come down to the Lecky Road but did not know whether or not any weapons were removed from the car.
PIRA 23 said he waited with other volunteers at the shops until about 17:30 when a member of the command staff came and told him the army had withdrawn. They were ordered to stand down and the weapons were taken to the dump with all the others. It was felt in the circumstances that the sight of guns on the street would only exacerbate the fear and dismay people were feeling. PIRA 23 said that for the rest of the day and the next three days volunteers patrolled without weapons. He said he recalled some ex-servicemen coming to him demanding weapons. They were told they could not have them.
Only later did he learn the detail of how many had been shot. This came from Civil Rights people. PIRA 23 said he was not aware of any assurances being given to NICRA but said with 20,000 people expected on the march there was no need for assurances to be given.
PIRA 23 said he knew nothing about any IRA gunfire on Bloody Sunday. He had heard about shots fired by Father Daly’s gunman but did not learn of other gunfire until this Inquiry. He was not aware of anyone being armed on the march. He dismissed allegations about Martin McGuinness having fired or been trapped in Duffy’s Bookmakers. He also dismissed Observer B’s suggestion that IRA auxiliaries were drilling in the Rossville Flats on the days leading up to Bloody Sunday. He agreed there were people they called auxiliaries. They did not have access to weapons. He said there were about 10 in the Creggan under his control. They just policed the area.
OIRA 11
Official IRA Volunteer, Creggan, 1972
Made Statement to the Inquiry on 5 February 2004 [AOIRA0011.0001]
OIRA 11 joined the Official IRA in December 1971, just before Bloody Sunday. He was 17 years old. He was not on duty on 30 January 1972 and could not remember what orders had been given. He was in one of the Creggan sections but rarely went on patrol because he was working. If he did go out he just walked the streets.
Not Interested in Politics
He said he could not be bothered to go on the march because he was not particularly interested in politics. However he did go to watch it assemble at the Creggan Shops. He was there for about 45 minutes having waiting 10-15 minutes after the march left. He then went home. He went back to the shops in Beechwood Avenue around 15:45/16.15.
Bogside Inn
On his way back he met people coming back from the march. They told him there had been shooting and he decided to walk down Broadway with a friend. At the roundabout on Broadway and New Road (Eastway) they met more people who said people had been shot in the Bogside. They therefore decided to go down to the Bogside Inn to find out what had happened.
OIRA 11 said it was getting dark by the time they got to the Bogside Inn and he did not recall hearing any shooting. There was a lot of commotion and people standing around talking. It was only when he went home that he discovered several people had been killed.
OIRA 11 said he did not see any IRA men of either wing at the Bogside Inn. He said he did not know Reg Tester. He did not know anyone other than his own section leader and the volunteers in his section. He never learnt what had happened. He was too junior to have been told. He was not an established, active volunteer. He was working full time and had only had minimal training.
Weapons
OIRA 11 said he had only seen two weapons by the time of Bloody Sunday, a .22 rifle and .45 handgun. He said the Official IRA were winding down the armed struggle at the time and about 5 or 6 weeks after Bloody Sunday he joined the Provos. He had never been in the Fianna. He knew Paddy Ward because they lived in the same street but said the first he leant of his paramilitary activities was in later press reports about the INLA.
Peter Taylor Interview [I0296]
OIRA 11 was interviewed by the journalist Peter Taylor in about 1997. He is quoted in Peter Taylor’s book Provos. The interview deals with Bloody Sunday and Peter Taylor is under the misapprehension that OIRA 11 was a Provo at the time. OIRA 11 said he lied in the interview to make himself appear more important. This is why he allowed Peter Taylor to think he was in the Provisional IRA at the time of Bloody Sunday. In the interview he claims to have seen a number of bodies including one called Guillen in a staircase of the Rossville Flats. OIRA 11 said he just told a story based on things he had heard. He had made up seeing the body in the flats and seeing Alexander Nash. He is quoted as saying it was like the trenches in the First World War with bodies lying everywhere.
Convictions
OIRA 11 was arrested in November 1973 for attempting to plant a bomb. He was convicted on three counts including membership of the Provisional IRA and sentenced to 8 years imprisonment. Later in March 1979 he was convicted of hijacking and sentenced to another 7 years.
OIRA 11 said an intelligence report [INT0002.0022] which claimed he was involved in shooting at an army helicopter was completely untrue. He denied a suggestion in the Kathryn Johnston/Liam Clarke notes [M0111.0030] that he had been shot in the leg by the Provos.
Margaret Smyth
Made Statement to the Inquiry on 4 February 2004 [AS0047.0001]
Ms. Smyth gave evidence to rebut a suggestion made by Charles McDaid that her sister, Jean Manning, had called him on the morning of Bloody Sunday. In his evidence to the Inquiry Mr. McDaid identified Ms. Manning as the person who rang his wife on 30 January 1972. He claims the caller told his wife they should not go on the march because the Paras were going to “come in shooting”. Mr. McDaid claimed Ms. Manning was a telephonist for the RUC in the Strand Road.
Ms. Smyth produced a letter to show Ms. Manning was not employed with the Northern Ireland Civil Service until March 1973. Furthermore she was never employed at the Strand Road barracks but at Victoria Barracks. She was not employed at all on Bloody Sunday and was unwell. Ms. Manning is now deceased but her sister wanted to put the record straight.
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
