BLOODY SUNDAY INQUIRY
Week 23

5 - 8 MARCH 2001

This week, the Tribunal heard from the journalist, Eamonn McCann who gave evidence on the republican movement in Derry, civil rights marches and his own investigations into Bloody Sunday. During Mr McCann’s evidence, Lord Saville ruled that he should not be asked for the names of IRA members in case it prejudiced individuals’ applications for anonymity. Lawyers for some of the families and the wounded complained about the way that civilians were being questioned about the IRA and asked the Tribunal to lay down guidelines.

Bernard Gilmore, the brother of Hugh Gilmore also gave evidence to the Tribunal. Most of the remaining evidence centred around events in the Rossville Flats car park. Donal Deeney gave extensive evidence, covering a number of areas.

A full transcript of proceedings is available at http://www.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org.uk

1 DONAL DEENEY’S EVIDENCE

Mr Deeney has given three statements to the BSI. He said that he had had problems with Evershed’s methodology.

1.1 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL

1.1.1 Rioting

Mr Deeney said that he was a regular rioter. He said that he had a gut feeling that there would be trouble on the march because he had heard reports from Americans working on the NATO base in the Waterside that the paras would ‘sort us out.’

He said that his gut instinct was that three or four civilians would be shot that day. He thought that there would be a big riot and that the situation had got to the stage where the soldiers would shoot.

Mr Deeney said that he was never part of a group that took soldiers out. He said that if he had been determined to get his hands on nail bombs or petrol bombs there were people in the community who had stocks of them. He does not know whether there were recognised places where bombs could be obtained.

On the occasions when gunmen took advantage of a riot, somebody would shout ‘clear the streets.’

1.1.2 Barrier 14

He was throwing stones. He said he would retreat back into the Bogside and draw the Army in. He said that the reason for doing this was because it was more favourable for the rioters to get away from William Street because they could be outflanked there.

The gossip was that the rioters were not to make trouble until after 5pm. He does not know where that had come from. Information would be pooled amongst the rioters. He does not know who made decisions about the riots or whether weapons would be used. He said that he imagined it was the local IRA that would make that decision.

Mr Deeney said that he broke into a Bookies shop on William Street. He said that people were breaking into the shop from High Street. He said that he wanted to ‘suss out’ the place for future reference. He wanted a panoramic view of what the soldiers were doing. He was not carrying anything when he was inside the Bookies. He said that he saw the soldiers as the enemy.

He rejoined the riot and the shout went up that the Army was moving into Rossville Street. He thought that the soldiers were slower in moving through barrier 14 than they had been on Little James Street. He was one of the last to move away and was not conscious of the soldiers moving through the barrier.

1.1.3 Rossville Flats car park

Mr Deeney reached the entrance to the Rossville Flats car park. He said that there were at least a dozen people who stopped in the car park as if they were waiting for a riot. He noticed one para, behind an APC, who appeared to be dangerously volatile. The other soldiers were not behaving as extreme as he was.

Mr Deeney turned and ran south across the car park. He said that Jack Duddy was running slightly in front of him and to his right. Mr Duddy fell on his face. Mr Deeney said that he assumed that the soldier he had seen at the edge of the car park had shot him. He cannot recall hearing any shots before Jack Duddy was shot.

Mr Deeney said that when he first entered the car park, he ran towards the gap between blocks 2 and 3. He went back to the entrance to the car park where the rioting was going on and then he ran towards the gap between blocks 1 and 2 at which point he saw Mr Duddy fall.

Mr Deeney said that Michael Bridge appeared whilst he was at Jack Duddy’s body. He said that Mr Bridge ran towards a soldier with his hands forward from his body. Mr Deeney said that he had been pushed by Evershed's into saying that Mr Bridge may have been carrying a bottle. He said that Mr Bridge might not have been carrying anything. He saw the soldier shoot Michael Bridge. The soldier had the butt of his gun under his armpit. Mr Bridge stiffened up and was dragged away by someone who he thinks may have been Francis Duddy. Mr Deeney thinks that at least two or three people pulled Mr Bridge away.

Mr Deeney jumped over a wall at the back of the courtyard. He saw a soldier firing from the hip. He saw a civilian with a pistol at the west gable wall of Chamberlain Street.

1.1.4 Rubble barricade

Mr Deeney went through Block 1 of the Rossville Flats. He said that he met Hugh Gilmore at the corner who shouted for people to stand their ground. Mr Deeney said that he followed Hugh Gilmore to the barricade where a number of people were ready to face the Army down. He said that Hugh Gilmore went right up to the barricade and may have put his foot on the barricade. Mr Gilmore turned and said ‘I have been shot.’ Mr Deeney said that he got the impression that he was shot as he turned around. There were soldiers about 20 to 30 yards away. He said that Hugh Gilmore then ran towards the canopy over the main entrance to the flats. He does not remember seeing Bernard McGuigan.

1.1.5 South of Rossville Flats

Mr Deeney re-entered the car park of the Rossville Flats and exited through the gap between Blocks 2 and 3. He said that he saw two, walking wounded being helped on the south side of Block 2, near the gable of Joseph Place. Almost immediately as he got through the gap, he came under fire. He said that he saw the body of Patrick Doherty.

1.1.6 Free Derry Corner

Mr Deeney said that he heard a sustained burst of machine gun fire when he reached Free Derry Corner. He said that the noise came from the Long Tower direction. He assumed that it was Army machine gunfire because he had never heard heavy machine gunfire from the IRA.

He thinks that he saw Patrick Campbell being helped by a woman and a girl.

1.1.7 Official IRA

Mr Deeney saw some Stickies (members of the Official IRA) coming out of a house. They had one rifle between them. He is not sure where the house was. He said that one man gestured that he was going to do something. Mr Deeney agreed that if the men had been members of the Provisional IRA they would probably have had more guns.

1.1.8 Long Tower gunman

Mr Deeney said that about 15 or 20 years later, he met a man in a pub who told him that he had been posted in the Long Tower area. The man told Mr Deeney that he had not fired at soldiers because he had been ordered not to shoot them. Mr Deeney said that he assumed the man was a Stickie.

1.1.9 Supplementary Statement

In his supplementary statements to the BSI, Mr Deeney said that whilst he was taking cover behind Joseph Place, he had seen a man standing in the lower car park. The man warned him that he was in danger of being shot at from the City Walls. Mr Deeney said that he looked up and saw a soldier on the walls and a couple of policemen. He said that the soldier fired at least twice.

Mr Deeney also said that when he had seen Patrick Doherty’s body there were about 50 people lying face down in the area. He thinks that the photograph showing Mr Doherty and Mr Walsh was taken at an earlier stage.

1.2 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND THE WOUNDED

Mr Deeney said that in spite of having made three statements to the BSI, which include corrections and alterations, his memory of Bloody Sunday has become clearer in the last 18 months. He said that he did not think he had got the sequence or detail wrong.

1.2.1 Barrier 14

Mr Deeney does not think that he went into the Bookies on a day other than Bloody Sunday. He was shown a photograph which shows that the windows of the Bookies were boarded with shutters on Bloody Sunday. He said that he had used long poles to prise the windows open a few inches. When Mr Harvey suggested that to gain entry to the Bookies he would have had to go through a house in Chamberlain Street or High Street, Mr Deeney said that structural work was being done on the buildings in the area. Mr Harvey suggested that Army snipers were positioned in the buildings around the Bookies.

Mr Deeney does not refer to having been soaked by the water cannon. He said that he was at the rear of the march and that he arrived at barrier 14 after the water cannon had been used.

1.2.2 Rossville Flats car park

Mr Deeney was shown the photograph of people running through the car park of the Rossville Flats towards the gaps between the Blocks. He said that he came into the car park after the photograph was taken. He does not recall the scene shown in the photograph of the group gathered around the body of Jack Duddy.

He said that he had a side and rear view of Michael Bridge. He does not recall Mr Bridge holding anything in his hands. He did not recognise the scene in the photograph which shows Mr Bridge walking away from the body of Jack Duddy.

He agreed that he would have been in the car park for a much shorter period than 5 to 10 minutes if he was to have witnessed the shooting of both Jack Duddy and Hugh Gilmore.

In Mr Deeney’s statement he said that he and Sean McCallion had made their way to Rossville Street because Mr McCallion heard that his sister had been shot with a rubber bullet. Mr McCallion’s statement says that he actually witnessed his sister being shot with the rubber bullet.

1.2.3 Patrick McDaid

Mr Deeney disagreed with the suggestion that he had seen Patrick McDaid shot and then moved to a position in which he saw Patrick Doherty’s body.

1.2.4 City Walls

Mr Deeney said that he had always been aware that there was shooting from the City Walls. He said that it was only after he had given his first statement that he started to think about Bloody Sunday and that a lot more had come back to him. Mr Harvey suggested that it was impossible for Mr Deeney to have seen the expression on the soldier’s face from a distance of 100 yards.

1.2.5 Patrick Doherty

Mr Deeney said that he had added to his evidence about Patrick Doherty rather than given various accounts. Mr Topolski went through Mr Deeney’s statements, in which he said that he thought he saw Mr Doherty, then had not seen him, and then had seen him. He suggested that Mr Deeney’s recollection was very vague. Mr Deeney said that he had never seen Mr Doherty’s face. Mr Doherty was lying face down when he passed him.

1.3 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS

1.3.1 Warnings and premonitions

Mr Deeney said that he was in a pub when the Americans had warned him about the paras. He said that he would meet the Americans once every couple of weeks and they would give him information such as the movement of troops.

He said that news had filtered through that an Army major who had been shot in Derry had died. Mr Lawson confirmed that an Army major, who had been shot in Derry, months earlier, had died from his wounds on the day of the march.

1.3.2 Rioting

Mr Deeney agreed that he had said that ‘we were out to destroy the State and the State wanted rid of us.’ He said that he had been present at a riot when nail bombs had been used. Petrol bombs were common.

He said that what he meant by saying that the rioters tried to draw the Army into the Bogside was that it was safer territory to riot in. There was more space and more opportunity to escape in the Bogside.

On the odd occasion, the rioters would make space for a sniper to shoot a soldier. If a shout went out, they would know to clear a space. If a gunman was used it would be spontaneous. He agreed that some rioters might have a closer relationship with gunmen than others. He does not know whether the rioters had any formal link with the IRA.

Mr Deeney agreed that on Bloody Sunday there was a moratorium on proper rioting until after 5pm.

1.3.3 Barrier 14

Mr Deeney said that he is very clear about being inside the Bookies. He said that people were crowded onto the ground floor. Mr Deeney had gone onto the first floor. He did not see any Thompson machine guns. Mr Deeney said that he did not see any petrol bombs thrown at the barrier. The reason he had gone into the Bookies was to get a better view of the soldiers and what was happening behind the barrier. He said that when he left the barrier he knew that the rioting would start somewhere else.

1.3.4 Rossville Flats car park

Mr Deeney said that there were about a dozen people pelting the soldiers with stones. He thinks that there were about 20 to 50 soldiers. He remembers one soldier being out of control. He remembers a lull in the shooting at the time Michael Bridge made a run for the soldier.

He said that he was badgered by Evershed's about the bottle.

1.3.5 Hugh Gilmore

Mr Deeney said that it was common practice among teenagers to encourage others to stand their ground and riot.

1.3.6 City Walls

Mr Deeney said that he is positive there was shooting from the City Walls. He said that he saw the soldier on the walls fire down the Fahan Street East steps, twice.

1.4 FURTHER QUESTIONS BY THE TRIBUNAL

1.4.1 Rioting and the IRA

Mr Deeney said that he does not know whether there was a formal or informal link between the rioters and the IRA.

2 EAMONN McCANN’S EVIDENCE

Eamonn McCann gave evidence to the Tribunal over two days. On the second day, Lord Saville announced that the Tribunal would not ask Mr McCann for the names of those involved in the IRA on Bloody Sunday. He said that the Tribunal does not want to prejudice individual’s claims to anonymity. He said that they might need to question him further at a later stage, if other fields of inquiry do not bear fruit.

2.1 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL

2.1.1 Marches

Eamonn McCann was one of the organisers of the march on 5^th October 1968. He was a prominent socialist activist in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was part of the Derry Action Housing Committee and was present and took part in the Battle of the Bogside.

2.1.2 The Republican movement in Derry

Mr McCann said that in the early 1970s, there was plenty of ‘loose talk’ about the IRA. He said that years after Bloody Sunday the IRA was much more tightly organised. Before then, a much more fluid situation existed. He said that there was a degree of openness in the no-go areas about the presence of paramilitaries. People discussed the IRA and activities in a way that was not possible at a later stage.

Both the Official and Republican republican movements had premises in Derry. Mr McCann said that the republican movement had both a paramilitary as well as a political face. He said it would be overstating it to call their premises ‘IRA offices.’ He said they did the same type of work as a local councillor or MP’s office. The Official movement had a disused shop in Central Drive and Meenan Square. The Provisional movement had premises near Stanley’s Walk and a HQ in the Creggan and Brandywell.

Mr McCann said that he knew more Officials because they were more left wing than the Provisionals and some were former members of the Labour Party. He said that it was impossible to avoid debates on what was proper IRA strategy. He never saw a membership role for either wing of the IRA. He said that he would be surprised if the Provisional IRA had more than 60 members in Derry. He thinks that the Official IRA may have been slightly larger.

The political Officials would have had a couple of hundred members in Derry. Mr McCann said that it is more difficult to say how many political Provisionals there were because they were just beginning to emerge as a coherent and identifiable organisation. He had the impression that the provisionals had more support in the community.

After the split, most of the younger people joined the Officials. Mr McCann said that after Bloody Sunday, the Provisionals were on the ‘up and up’ in Derry. He said that it was difficult to say whether they were on the ‘up and up’ in the months preceding Bloody Sunday.

2.1.3 Membership of the Official and Provisional IRA

Mr McCann said that he believed at the time that he wrote ‘War and an Irish Town’ that Martin McGuinness was the OC of the Provisional IRA in Derry. It was a role that was ascribed to Mr McGuinness and was widely held at the time. He said that he now thinks that he was wrong in believing that and thinks that someone else was the OC of the Provisionals.

Mr McCann refused to confirm whether the individuals he had named in his book were members of the Labour Party who joined the Officials. He said that information he had gathered, as journalist was confidential. He said that some of them had expressed a willingness to give their own evidence and are speaking to the Tribunal.

Mr McCann said that there is nothing that he knows about the actions or plans of either wing of the IRA that he has not already told the BSI.

2.1.4 Activities of Provisionals and Officials in Derry

Mr McCann agreed that there were a substantial number of armed men in Derry. He does not know where the two armed wings kept their arms.

In ‘War and an Irish Town,’ Mr McCann wrote about the autumn of 1969 when a republican training officer came from Cork and trained people how to dismantle and reassemble a Thompson machine gun and a Sten and how to make a Mills bomb. He knows the identity of the republican training officer and the members of the Labour party who learned how to use guns. Mr McCann was with the group that went to Donegal for practice shoot-outs.

His book mentions events in May 1972 when a 19-year-old soldier, Ranger William Best, returned home on leave to Derry from where he was stationed in Germany. He was killed because the Official IRA had orders to kill British soldiers, regardless of where they came from. Mr McCann interviewed a prominent member of the Officials about this because he wanted to understand whether there was a general mandate or someone had killed Mr Best on their own initiative. He does not know who shot Mr Best.

Mr McCann said that the Provisionals believed in bombing economic targets, whereas the Officials wanted to concentrate on military targets.

2.1.5 IRA orders

Mr McCann knew from leaders of the Officials that they would not be carrying guns. He said that he had discovered that quite casually and assumed that it would have been understood and known to people who moved in and around those circles. Presumably all members of the Official IRA would also have known this.

Mr McCann had no knowledge about the intention or orders of Provisionals for the day.

2.1.6 Bloody Sunday march

Mr McCann was not involved with the organisation of the march. The Northern Resistance Movement and the Civil Rights Association held nine marches in different parts of Northern Ireland in the first four weeks of January 1972. Mr McCann said that some of them ended in medium-sized riots when the Army moved in.

Mr McCann cannot remember who he was with on the march. He agreed that he could have been with Bernadette Devlin and Rory McShane. He met Nell McCafferty by Con Bradley’s Bar and said at this stage the riot was coming to an end.

Mr McCann said that his memory of the march is vague. He heard the first rifle shot when he was just below Block 1 of the Rossville Flats. He heard voices appealing for people to assemble for the meeting. He heard shots which appeared to be coming from the William Street direction. He is not certain whether he heard rubber bullets before the live shots.

Mr McCann recalls somebody aged about 50 years old and a younger person beside him in the gutter. Mr Clarke suggested that this tied in with an account given by Helen Doherty. Mr McCann said that he does not recall pushing somebody to get them to take cover.

Mr McCann looked back up Rossville Street and saw young people running between Blocks 1 and 2. He saw young men bounding over the rubble barricade. He saw people falling and wondered whether he was really seeing people being shot.

Mr McCann reached Meenan Square where he tried to take cover. He said that he heard people expressing bitterness towards the IRA. He was not aware of the Officials or Provisionals arriving with guns. He said that, at one stage, he saw a man with a gun at the bottom of Westland Street. The man was walking along the gable and poked his head down Rossville Street. People were saying various contradictory things to the man. The man did not shoot and went back up Westland Street.

Mr McCann said that he saw people debating and would not be surprised if the Provisionals had debated as well, although he did not witness that. He has no memory of seeing armed Provisionals debating whether to return fire.

Mr McCann met Bernadette Devlin and they went to Nell McCafferty’s house to try and get an explanation from the authorities. He said that there were lots of meetings in the Creggan. There was a lot of discussion taking place. Mr McCann said that the upshot of a meeting by Provisionals and Officials was that a general strike should be called throughout Ireland until the funerals of the Bloody Sunday victims had taken place.

2.1.7 Civilian gunmen

Mr McCann said that, as far as he was aware, there were only two gunmen in the area and he has spoken to them both.

Mr McCann spoke to the civilian gunman who has become known as ‘Father Daly’s gunman,’ about a year after Bloody Sunday. The man said that he had taken a gun on the march for his own personal protection and had lost his temper. Mr McCann’s understanding was that the man had only fired once. He does not recall whether the man said he had only fired once.

In a 1992 article for the Sunday Tribune, Mr McCann wrote about Father Daly’s gunman saying that he was a senior member in Derry’s Official IRA. The article said that the man said he fired 2 or 3 shots which did not hit anybody. He fired after Jack Duddy had already been shot. The gunman said that he carried the pistol, in defiance of IRA orders, and because it was his own personal weapon he did not have to draw it from a dump.

The second gunman said that he fired one shot from a rifle in Columbcille Court, immediately after the shootings of Damien Donaghy and John Johnston. He had fired at soldiers on the roof of a building in Little James Street.

Mr McCann’s understanding is that five shots were fired by the Officials in the Bogside on Bloody Sunday, but none of them were fired before the paras opened fire. He thinks that one shot was fired from Columbcille Court; probably three shots from Father Daly’s gunman and one shot from the Long Tower area sometime after the paras had withdrawn.

2.1.8 Earlier analysis of civilian gunmen

Mr McCann now believes that the analysis of civilian gunshots in his pamphlet ‘What happened in Derry,’ is incorrect. In the article, he wrote that six shots were fired, all of them missed and only two of them were fired whilst the Army was shooting.

The first he described is Father Daly’s gunman’s shot. Mr McCann now believes that the gunman fired into Chamberlain Street rather than Rossville Street.

Mr McCann then described an Official IRA man firing one shot from a .303 rifle into Rossville Street. He thinks that this is inaccurate and said that he would have got the information from discussing matters in the Bogside at the time. He said that the description of this gunman fits that of the man who fired from Columbcille Court.

Mr McCann also believes that his description of a Provisional firing three rounds from a Thompson sub-machine gun from Westland Street into Rossville Street is inaccurate. He said that he would not have got that information from talking to a Provisional. He would have formed a judgment after talking to people and described the information as a distillation of the general belief and rumour at the time.

Twenty minutes later, about half a mile from the scene, an Official fired one shot from Cooke Street and Joyce Street. He was injured by return fire. Mr McCann thinks that this actually happened and knows the identity of the gunman.

2.2 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND THE WOUNDED

2.2.1 IRA evidence at the BSI

Mr McCann was asked about his own attitude to the need for people, particularly those involved in firing weapons on Bloody Sunday, to come forward to the Tribunal. He said that the only people who can provide accurate, reliable information about IRA activities are members of the IRA. He said that in as much as there was ‘loose talk’ in 1972, the IRA were oath-bound, clandestine organisations.

Mr McCann suggested that in order for members of the Provisional IRA to come forward, the current Army Council of the Provisional IRA take the unprecedented step of releasing their members from their undertaking of secrecy. Mr McCann said that their members would have taken an oath never to divulge the activities of their organisation. He said that the oath is deadly serious and this is something which is not fully appreciated outside their immediate circle.

Mr McCann said that in asking civilian witnesses about the IRA, the BSI has ascribed a knowledge to them that they do not have.

He said that many people are troubled by the balance and tone of questioning. Lord Saville interrupted and said that the Tribunal is well aware that asking civilians about the IRA is an unsatisfactory method of gathering evidence. He said that the Tribunal has had to use this method because it is under a duty to find the whole truth about what happened on Bloody Sunday and that until recently no one from the IRA had come forward to give evidence. He said that unless members of the IRA do come forward, the Tribunal will have to use unsatisfactory methods.

2.2.2 Armed civilians on Bloody Sunday

Mr McCann has interviewed Father Daly’s gunman and the man with the rifle in Columbcille Court. He said that both of them have approached the Tribunal about anonymity. He does not know anything about the man with the handgun who was referred to in the evidence of Teresa Bradley and David Capper.

Mr Harvey put Reg Tester’s evidence to Mr McCann. Reg Tester said that he was the quartermaster of the Official IRA and that he had tried to fire an M1 carbine on Bloody Sunday but the gun had jammed. Mr McCann agreed that he had seen a rifleman in Westland Street, the same vicinity that Mr Tester said that he was. He thinks he would have recognised Reg Tester but said that it is possible that in the excitement at that time that he did not.

Mr McCann knows the person who fired the shot in Long Tower Street. The man was a member of the Official IRA.

Mr McCann has no information that the Provisional IRA fired any weapons on Bloody Sunday. He said that it is his belief that they did not fire any weapons.

2.2.3 Missing casualties

Mr Topolski asked Mr McCann about the soldiers’ allegations that there were 34 unknown casualties on Bloody Sunday. Mr McCann said that he was not aware of any secret burials. He described the suggestion as wholly fanciful and patently ridiculous.

2.2.4 Civil Rights marches

Mr McCann attended a large number of marches from the first in October 1968. Different organisations would organise the marches. He said that he had never known a civil rights march to be used by paramilitary gunmen to draw out the Army.

Mr McCann understood that the Official IRA would not be at the Bloody Sunday march and had been told the same about the Provisional IRA. He said it would have been relatively easy for the authorities to discover that that was the position of the paramilitaries on the day.

2.2.5 ‘Bloody Sunday in Derry – What Really Happened’

Mr McCann was asked questions about a book he had written about Bloody Sunday. ‘Bloody Sunday in Derry – What Really Happened’ was published in 1992.

In the book he wrote that a British official, ‘well placed to know military thinking’, said that ‘the Paras needed a result.’ Mr McCann believes that his conversation with this military official took place a number of years before the book was published. He refused to name the official.

Mr McCann agreed that he had carried out extensive research of his own into Bloody Sunday. He is familiar with the allegations that someone fired an automatic weapon. Mr McCann said that he thinks that there was no automatic fire on Bloody Sunday. In the book he suggests that the noise was the sound made by the helicopter.

Mr McCann said that in the couple of weeks preceding Bloody Sunday, 30 men from the Bogside and the Creggan were interned. The impact of the opening of Magilligan camp was significant because it was geographically close to Derry and because it was the second camp to be opened. Mr McCann said that this showed that the authorities did not see internment as a short-term option. It indicated that it would be a long-term struggle and would have to be taken seriously. Mr McCann said that this brought together the existence of the no-go areas with the resistance to internment. It was one of the reasons why it was said from within the Bogside and Creggan that the area should be kept barricaded. Only be keeping it a no-go area would the British Army and police be prevented from interning people indefinitely.

Mr McCann cannot recall where he heard John Taylor’s comment after the shooting of Seamus Cusack and Desmond Beattie that it ‘would be necessary to shoot even more in forthcoming months.’ He recalls the statement and that it had made people speechless with anger. The fact that John Taylor was the Minister responsible for law and order in Stormont solidified the feeling that no justice could be obtained within the existing political order.

2.3 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF NICRA

2.3.1 Civil rights marches

Mr McCann explained that the first civil rights march in 1968 had been trapped between two cordons of police and the marchers had been battened into disarray.

He said that his attitude towards marches in 1972 was the same as in 1968. He saw them as a perfectly proper way of protesting against the system that operated in Northern Ireland.

2.3.2 Bloody Sunday march

Mr McCann said that there was no policing of the march from the Creggan to the Bogside. The march was policed by stewards. He agreed there was a difference in the policing of the Bloody Sunday march and the 1968 march.

2.4 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS

2.4.1 Civilian witnesses

Mr McCann disagreed with the suggestion that people were waiting for sanction from the IRA before giving a full account to the BSI. He said that only the people from the IRA can give reliable information about the IRA.

When asked whether it was possible that civilians did not hear the shots around William Street, Mr McCann said that he was not aware that Damien Donaghy or John Johnston had been shot until later that evening. He said that William Street was crowded as he came down it. He understood that it was a matter of seconds after the first shots that the civilian gunman fired his gun. Mr McCann said that he did not hear the shots that hit Mr Donaghy and Mr Johnson which would make it possible that other people did not hear any shots either.

Mr McCann said that it is not strange that many people in the Rossville Flats car park had not seen Father Daly’s gunman. He suggested that many would have been focused on the dramatic image of Jack Duddy. Mr McCann also noted that the soldiers in the car park did not notice Father Daly’s gunman either.

Mr McCann is not aware of witnesses who are reluctant to give evidence. Mr Lawson suggested that many witnesses wanted to say they had taken a more active role in a major historical event than they actually had in reality. Mr McCann said that he had not detected this.

Mr McCann said that people had given him misleading accounts and he realises, in the light of greater knowledge, that some of his views of what happened on Bloody Sunday are mistaken. He noted that to say that people had given misleading accounts was not to say that they were deliberately lying. Mr McCann said that he had been told and believed that the IRA had fired from an automatic weapon in the vicinity of the Rossville Flats. He realises that this was untrue and misleading.

He agreed that there have been occasions in Derry when people have been prepared to give evidence on oath that was untrue. He agreed that he had played a part in arranging alibis when he thought the evidence being given to convict rioters was unfair. Mr McCann said that he believed justice was best served by adopting that course at that time.

2.4.2 IRA treatment of the dead

Mr McCann agreed that many people had been killed by the IRA for informing and that it was not the case that they treated these people, either when they were living or dead with respect. He does not know what the attitude of the IRA would be to one of its members who had defied an order and done something which led to the death of an innocent bystander.

2.4.3 Civil rights marches

Mr McCann said that there was a risk in all civil rights marches that they would end in confrontation. The marches were not designed for confrontation in a physical sense but they were marches against the authorities and policies, whether internment or discrimination.

He said that the very first civil rights march in Derry did not anticipate or invite confrontation but it had been confronted by the RUC. From 1968, every civil rights march was likely to end in confrontation with the RUC and later the British Army, since they chose to confront it. If a march was planned, it would be planned in the knowledge that this was a possible outcome.

2.4.5 Bloody Sunday march

Mr McCann was not involved in organising the Bloody Sunday march. He said that it struck him on the day that it would have been better to have somebody who people knew to persuade the marchers to follow directions.

He said that there was confusion at the junction of Rossville Street and William Street. He accepted that there was a group of people who were intent on reaching the barricade for a riot. Mr McCann said that it would be highly contentious to suggest that if there had not been a riot at barrier 14, there would be no Bloody Sunday.

2.4.6 Attitudes towards the British Army

Mr McCann was asked about attitudes towards the British Army. He said that almost universally people saw their arrival as signalling the defeat of the RUC. However he stressed that not everyone welcomed them.

Mr McCann said that he does not believe that the fundamental purpose of the British Army coming to Northern Ireland was to preserve the peace or to protect anybody. He said that he would not argue with the suggestion that some of the behaviour of the Army was incompetent attempts at peacekeeping. He said that he had the impression that in the initial stages, many of the soldiers, including senior officers were bewildered and confused by the situation they had arrived in.

As time wore on, the violence escalated. Internment made an overwhelming contribution to even more horrific violence. Mr McCann understood that British Army officers, at the highest level, opposed internment and that they incurred the wrath of the local population in attempting to comply with that.

Mr McCann said that he did not regard the Army figures for violent incidents as supplied by the British Army as reliable. He cited Officer Ferguson’s comments who said that on not one of the occasions that his men had reported having been fired on from the Rossville Flats was there any independent evidence of it having happened. Officer Ferguson said that squaddies on the ground, greatly exaggerated the level of violence being aimed at them.

2.4.7 Rioting

Mr McCann said that the relationship between the rioters and political organisations was complex. He said that people who regularly rioted would have common cause with people making guerrilla warfare on the British Army and the RUC.

Mr McCann said that it was not the case that rioters would have been under the control of paramilitary organisations. He said that rioting is a very democratic activity and it is very difficult to control people in a riot situation. He said that it is not the case that the category of people who were rioting in the Bogside at the time would have regarded themselves or would have been under the control or command of paramilitary organisations.

Mr McCann said that lots of people who lived in the vicinities where the riots took place were annoyed by rioting and felt oppressed by it. Rioting was not universally popular and attitudes towards it could change quite dramatically. If there was an incident with the Army, then rioters would be looked on relatively benignly. At other times people would be thoroughly fed up with them and they were frequently condemned by the clergy. At times, people who were absolutely opposed to violence found themselves in a situation in which they could not quite wholly condemn acts of violence against the security forces.

2.4.8 Martin McGuinness

Mr McCann said that it is only recently that he has come to the conclusion that Martin McGuinness was not the Officer Commanding of the Provisional IRA in Derry. He had written it as a general belief that was held at the time.

Mr McCann recalls Mr McGuinness making speeches at Sinn Fein meetings.

2.4.9 IRA weapons

Mr McCann does not know whether there was a specific order for the Official IRA to keep weapons away. He had never had any knowledge on where they would keep their weapons.

Mr McCann learned after Bloody Sunday that the Provisionals had stayed in the Creggan.

Mr McCann said that he thought that the Provisionals and Officials were not as aware of propaganda as would be expected of people in that position.

2.4.10 Praxis interview

Mr McCann does not recall the Praxis interview. Interview notes state that beside the Provisional and Official IRA there was another armed group in the Bogside in 1972 called Saor Eire. Mr McCann said that they were present in Derry in 1969. He said that it is possible that he made a mistake about the date during the interview. He said that in 1969 there was a large number of people of a revolutionary bent who would come to the no-go area in Derry. Saor Eire was a breakaway group from the IRA who were present in 1969.

Mr McCann said that he definitely did not see a number of armed Provisionals debating whether to return fire. He said had he seen that he would not have forgotten it.

2.5 FURTHER QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL

2.5.1 IRA membership

Mr McCann said that it was possible to be a member of the Officials or Provisionals without being a member of the IRA. Some members of the political grouping would know leaders of the Army grouping. Mr McCann knew members of Sinn Fein who did not know who was in the IRA or anything about their activities.

Mr McCann agreed that he had not heard anyone dispute the fact that Martin McGuinness was a leading light in the Provisional IRA.

2.5.2 Intelligence about the march

Mr McCann said that very shortly after Bloody Sunday, both wings of the IRA became much better and more tightly organised. It is his understanding that the task of the Security Forces in gathering intelligence about the IRA plans would have been immeasurably more difficult in this period. He said that he was not suggesting that it would have been easy for the authorities to discover what the IRA plans were for Bloody Sunday.

2.5.3 Columbcille Court

Mr McCann understood the shots from the civilian in Kells Walk/Columbcille Court to have been directed at the Presbyterian Church.

3. BERNARD GILMORE’S EVIDENCE

Bernard Gilmore is the brother of Hugh Gilmore who was killed on Bloody Sunday.

3.1 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL

3.1.1 Rossville Street

Mr Gilmore was on Rossville Street following the march when he heard the first shots. He heard between 30 and 40 shots. He said that initially he was conscious of CS gas and rubber bullets. Then he heard rubber bullets and live bullets at the same time. He made his way to the car park of the Rossville Flats. Mr Gilmore said that at this stage, he was not aware of soldiers or the Army vehicles.

3.1.2 Rossville Flats car park

Mr Gilmore went to his mother’s flat in the Rossville Flats and saw soldiers running through the waste ground. He saw the soldiers scattering in different directions. Mr Gilmore said that he saw 20 to 30 people in the car park, running towards the Flats. He saw a boy fall on his face and a priest and some other men went to the boy and turned him over. Mr Gilmore thinks that it was one of the four soldiers at the back end of the Chamberlain Street houses who shot Jack Duddy. Mr Gilmore was shown a 1972 statement signed by himself, his sister and his wife. This statement places the soldier who shot Jack Duddy as further into the waste ground. Mr Gilmore does not recall making the statement but said that everything that he is recorded to have said in 1972 fits into his account to the BSI.

Mr Gilmore did not see where Michael Bridge came from. He said that Mr Bridge was standing on his own about 20 to 25 yards from the soldier who was standing at the north east corner of Block 1. Mr Gilmore thinks that it was this soldier who shot Mr Bridge because he saw the recoil of his rifle.

Mr Gilmore saw 3 or 4 soldiers coming from behind an APC. He recalls one of the soldiers shouting ‘go, go, go.’ The soldiers were shooting towards the retaining wall by Block 3. He saw other soldiers on the waste ground who were running around, firing.

3.1.3 Father Daly’s gunman

Mr Gilmore saw a civilian gunman near Chamberlain Street, after Jack Duddy had been shot. He recognised the man and wrote his name on a piece of paper for the Tribunal. Mr Clarke said that it is the same name provided by Mr Harley (see BIRW week 20 para 10 and week 21 para 15). Mr Gilmore said that the man was holding a handgun and fired shots up Chamberlain Street. He cannot be sure whether the man fired before of after Michael Bridge was shot.

3.1.4 Retaining wall

Mr Gilmore saw a group of people crawling along the retaining wall in front of Block 3 of the Rossville Flats. He said that the soldiers were firing at them and could see bullets hitting the concrete wall. He said that the bullets landed close to the men who were on their hands and knees. Mr Gilmore was shown a photograph of Patrick Doherty crawling along the wall and said that he remembers seeing a larger group of about 8 to 10 men.

Mr Clarke suggested that as there were two sets of steps which led from the front of Block 3 to the gap between Blocks 2 and 3, there may have been people who took different routes.

Mr Gilmore said that the men in the group that he was watching seemed to jump at the same time and move towards the gap. Most of the group ran. He said that the shooting was very intense. Mr Gilmore said that he took it for granted that one of the men had been shot. Mr Clarke said that the group that Mr Gilmore saw could not be the same group that can be seen in the photographs, which includes Patrick Doherty, because that group can be seen crawling along the wall further south of the steps.

3.1.5 South of the Rossville Flats

Mr Gilmore saw the body of Patrick Doherty in between Block 2 and Joseph Place. He said that Mr Doherty was lying on his stomach and there was no one else in the immediate vicinity. His attention was drawn to a body that he could see to the right of the window. Mr Gilmore could only see the feet of the body and later found out that it was the body of his brother, Hugh.

Mr Gilmore heard that his brother had been shot and left the flat. He saw Bernard McGuigan’s body. He saw men being marched through Glenfada Park North as people were being put in an ambulance.

3.2 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND THE WOUNDED

3.2.1 Patrick Doherty

Mr Gilmore agreed that he cannot be sure that the man he saw crawling along the retaining wall was Patrick Doherty. He cannot be sure that anyone in the group that he saw was shot. He had assumed that the reason that everyone ran was because one of them had been shot.

When Mr Gilmore moved to the window overlooking the south side of Block 2, he could see Patrick Doherty lying on the ground. Mr Gilmore said that people were telling Mr Doherty to lie still and not move. He cannot be sure whether Mr Doherty was crawling or lying still when he was shot. He said that Mr Doherty had been crawling in the direction of the Fahan Street steps.

3.2.2 Michael Bridge

Mr Gilmore did not see any stone throwing at the time that Michael Bridge was shot. There was a lot of firing towards the group around Jack Duddy’s body. Mr Gilmore knew Michael Bridge from school and saw him stride towards the soldiers. He did not have a weapon in his hands. He said that Mr Bridge had both his hands outstretched and was indicating that the group was attending to a man who had been shot. Mr Gilmore said that nothing was thrown at the soldiers.

3.3 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS

3.3.1 Other experiences with the paras

Mr Gilmore agreed that he is not sure when the events he outlines in his statement had taken place.

3.3.2 Rossville Flats car park

Mr Gilmore saw soldiers shooting into the car park. He is not sure whether they were in Chamberlain Street or the waste ground.

3.3.3 Civilian gunman

Mr Gilmore said that he has a distinct impression that the gunman shot up Chamberlain Street rather than into the waste ground.

3.3.4 1972 statement

Mr Gilmore has no recollection of the statement that he made in 1972 with his wife and sister.

4 HUGH BARBOUR

4.1 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL

4.1.1 Rossville Flats car park

Mr Barbour was on a balcony of Block 1 of the Rossville Flats when he saw soldiers getting out of an APC and taking up firing positions. He could see stones crashing off an APC. He said that some of the younger sections of the crowd were jeering and taunting soldiers and some were throwing stones and bottles. He saw a soldier on the west side of the APC fire four or five rounds from the hip into the crowd.

Mr Barbour said that he saw Michael Bradley clutching his right side and then stagger and fall. He thought that Mr Bradley had been shot in the stomach. He did not see Jack Duddy. Mr Barbour said that Michael Bradley was part of the melee in the car park. The melee consisted of people trying to get away and youths throwing stones. Mr Bradley was not one of the people throwing stones.

Mr Barbour said that Michael Bridge was angry and made a go for the soldier at the side of the APC. He said that the soldier shot Mr Bridge. He does not recognise the photograph of Michael Bridge by the APC.

4.1.2 Hugh Gilmore

Mr Barbour came out of Block 1 onto Rossville Street and ran south towards the telephone box. He said that Eamonn Melaugh dragged the body of Hugh Gilmore around the corner of Block 1. Mr Clarke said that Eamonn Melaugh has given a different account in his statement to the BSI. Mr Melaugh said that he saw Hugh Gilmore running south down Rossville Street shouting ‘I’m hit, I’m hit,’ and that he collapsed at the gable end of Block 1. Mr Barbour said that he recalls Mr Melaugh as appearing cool and controlled.

4.1.3 Barney McGuigan

Mr Barbour tried to get inside Molly Barr’s shop on the southside of Block 2. He said that he stayed under the veranda and saw Barney McGuigan standing in the gap between Block 1 and 2. Mr Barbour said that Mr McGuigan was shouting ‘please help – don’t shoot me.’ He said Mr McGuigan was facing into the car park. He thinks that Mr McGuigan was shot in the left cheek as he was trying to get help for Hugh Gilmore.

Mr Clarke suggested that Mr Barbour actually saw the exit wound because the forensic evidence shows that Mr McGuigan was shot in the back of his head.

4.1.4 Joseph Place

Mr Barbour saw 3 or 4 soldiers come out from Glenfada Park. He felt bullets whiz past him as he made his way to Joseph Place. He saw shots strike the steps leading to Fahan Street. There were three or four people taking the same route as him at this time.

Mr Barbour met his friend, Joe McQuaid and then heard someone shouting ‘I am hit, I am hit.’ He thinks the shouts were coming from between Block 2 and Joseph Place and assumed it was Patrick Doherty. Mr Barbour said that he had felt someone behind him fall but was shocked and focused on getting away.

4.2 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND THE WOUNDED

4.2.1 Barney McGuigan

Mr Barbour said that Glenfada Park would have been behind Mr McGuigan when he was shot.

The soldier he saw coming out of Glenfada Park had knelt down and taken up firing positions. He said that he had the impression that the soldiers were aiming their rifles in his direction.

4.2.2 Rossville Flats car park

Mr Barbour said that he had witnessed Michael Bridge going towards the soldiers. Mr Kennedy said that the evidence suggests that Michael Bridge was shot as he waved his hands about in reaction to the shooting of Jack Duddy. Mr Barbour said that he had not mentioned Michael Bridge being shot in his 1972 statement because he was in shock at the time. He agreed that he had listened to other people’s accounts of Michael Bridge’s shooting.

Mr Barbour was shown a photograph of what may be Michael Bridge just before he was shot. He agreed that the man in the photograph was not holding a piece of wood.

4.3 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS

4.3.1 Rossville Flats car park

Mr Barbour said that there was 45 seconds in between the time that the soldiers disembarked to the time when they started firing.

He saw people on the ground, throwing missiles at the soldiers.

5 BRIAN BAKER’S EVIDENCE

5.1 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL

5.1.1 Rossville Flats car park

Mr Baker watched from a balcony on Block 3 of the Rossville Flats. He saw 300 to 400 people trying to funnel through the gaps between the flats. He recalls seeing an Army ferrat car drive into the car park, turn clockwise and drive out again.

He does not recall seeing an APC at the mouth of the car park. He moved towards Block 2 and heard high velocity shots which were all directed towards the car park. He did not have the impression that the soldiers were being fired at. He could see a group of 5 or 6 people around a person who had fallen down and later discovered that it was Jack Duddy.

Mr Baker saw a man who he described as hysterical who broke away from the group. A shot rang out and the man clutched his leg. He believes that the soldier who shot the man was in the lane at the back of Chamberlain Street. Mr Baker recalls moving towards the corner of the wall and said that a shot hit the wall close to him. He retreated into a stairwell and heard the gunfire become very heavy. Mr Baker crawled inside a flat and stayed there for 10 minutes.

5.1.2 South of the Rossville Flats

Mr Baker went outside Block 2 of the flats and saw the body of Barney McGuigan. He said that about 10 shots were fired, which seemed to be going south down Rossville Street. He thinks that there were soldiers at Kells Walk and Glenfada Park. He did not see any bodies on the barricade.

5.1.3 Abbey Park

Mr Baker saw people standing near a body which was lying diagonally on the steps. Somebody told him that the man had had a heart attack. He agreed that the body was in the same position that can be seen in the photograph of Gerry McKinney’s body.

5.2 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS

5.2.1 Rossville Flats car park

Mr Baker said he had a clear recollection of the Ferrat car doing a circuit of the car park of the Rossville Flats. Mr Glasgow suggested that he was mistaken. Mr Baker could not explain why no-one else has said that they saw it.

He was not aware of anything being thrown in the car park. He said his attention was focused on Jack Duddy.

6 MICHAEL BRIDGE’S EVIDENCE

Michael Bridge was 16 years old at the time of Bloody Sunday. He is a cousin to the Michael Bridge who was wounded on Bloody Sunday.

6.1 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL

6.1.1 Rossville Flats

Mr Bridge noticed his cousin, Michael Bridge near the gap between Blocks 1 and 2 of the flats. He did not notice anyone else in the car park and said that Mr Bridge was facing an isolated soldier in the car park. The soldier who shot Mr Bridge was holding his rifle at shoulder level. He cannot recall seeing a flash or recoil but he heard a bang. He saw Mr Bridge’s posture change, immediately. He said that the shooting happened in a flash as he was coming out of his house. He did not see what happened to the soldier.

6.1.2 South of the Rossville Flats

As Mr Bridge ran between the gap between Blocks 2 and 3 of the flats he realised shots were aimed in his direction. He saw a piece of concrete fly out from one of the pillars that supports the walkway.

Mr Bridge recalls seeing a man lying in a pool of blood in between Joseph Place and Block 2 of the Rossville Flats. He has a vague memory of people dragging him to Joseph Place. He was shown a photograph of the body of Patrick Doherty and said that this is close to the recollection he has.

As he got to the end of Joseph Place he heard shots and got the impression that they were being fired from the walls.

6.2 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS

6.2.1 South of the Rossville Flats

Mr Bridge cannot recall how many people he saw dragging the body along the ground.

7 COLM O’DOMHNAILL’S EVIDENCE

7.1 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL

7.1.1 Premonitions

Mr O’Domhnaill was in his last year at Magee College. He recalls listening to the news before the march and hearing John Taylor telling people to stay away from the march. He said that he perceived this as a veiled threat and understood it to mean that the Security Forces would be more strenuous than they might previously have been.

7.1.2 William Street

Mr O’Domhnaill was in the laundry waste ground on William Street when he heard three shots. He saw a small group gathered around a young man. He thinks that he came on the scene immediately after the shots had been fired. He was not conscious of gas or rubber bullets in this area.

He said that he heard talk of someone getting a rifle which struck him as insane because they were in plain view of the troops. Nothing came of the talk and he heard the crowd saying ‘for God’s sake, don’t do it.’

7.1.3 Free Derry Corner

Mr O’Domhnaill recalls that Bernadette Devlin had started to speak. She was calling for a general strike until the end of internment. He heard the roar of the APCs and saw a number travelling along Rossville Street. Mr O’Domhnaill wondered what the APCs intended to do because there was no riotous situation.

He has a very clear memory of the APCs coming as far as the Rossville Flats. He thinks that an APC veered towards the right into Glenfada Park. Mr O’Domhnaill said that soldiers jumped out from the back of the vehicles and immediately took up firing positions. All of a sudden, he heard very quick and heavy fire. He did not hear a Thompson sub machine gun. He thinks that bullets hit the Free Derry Corner wall and the lorry. Everybody fell to the ground. He said that the firing was initially continuous and lasted for several minutes. Then the shooting came at intervals and in a sporadic fashion.

7.1.4 St Columbs Wells

Mr O’Domhnaill was at St Columbs Wells when the firing stopped. He saw a white or blue car carrying a seriously injured person.

7.1.5 South of the Rossville Flats

Mr O’Domhnaill felt the pulse of a man lying near to Joseph Place. He thinks it may have been Patrick Doherty.

He moved along block 2 and saw the body of Barney McGuigan. He recognised the civil rights banner that had been placed over Mr McGuigan’s body as one his father had made.

Mr O’Domhnaill saw Father Mulvey approach soldiers at the north of Block 1. He heard Father Mulvey say ‘stop shooting, you stupid bastards.’ He said that a volley of fire seemed to come almost casually from the direction of an APC. He had the impression that the shots were fired at a group of people rather than towards the window of Block 1.

7.1.6 1972 statement

Mr O’Domhnaill said that he and other students from Magee College made statements independently and sent them to the Widgery Tribunal. He was not called to give evidence at the Widgery Inquiry.

7.1.7 Sunday Times archive

Mr O’Domhnaill recalls speaking to a journalist. The notes of his interview said that he had picked up a rubber bullet which had been cut. He said that he now has no memory of this but he would have given the interview in the immediate aftermath and it would have been his memory at the time.

7.2 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND THE WOUNDED

7.2.1 After the march

Mr O’Domhnaill said that when he was on his way home he saw a group of paras laughing and joking about the events of the day. One mentioned the possibility of double casualty figures that night. Mr O’Domhnaill said that it sounded as if the paras were going to have another go.

7.3 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF NICRA

7.3.1 Stewarding

Mr O’Domhnaill said that when he reached barrier 14, the riot was over. He said that stewards were trying to persuade people to move away from the barricade. At the same time, he saw the Army firing CS gas and rubber bullets.

7.4 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF THE SOLDIERS

7.4.1 Barriers

Mr O’Domhnaill had taken photographs of the barriers before the march. He agreed that there were very few soldiers on the streets when he was taking photographs. He said that when he got to barriers 12 and 14 (the barriers guarding the city centre), there was a much heavier military presence.

7.4.2 William Street

Mr O’Domhnaill did not hear a shot from a civilian gunman when he was in the William Street area.

7.4.3 Rossville Street

Mr O’Domhnaill recalls the wheels of an APC going over something because he remembers the wheels rose off the ground. He agrees that it is possible that the APC hit the kerb as it turned into Glenfada Park. He said that he is not confusing this with the APC that came to collect the bodies.

7.4.4 Camera

Mr O’Domhnaill was carrying a camera. He said that a soldier had indicated to the camera but had not taken it off him.

8 PATRICK HARKIN’S EVIDENCE

8.1 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL

8.1.1 Rossville Flats car park

Mr Harkin saw the soldiers come through barrier 14 on foot. He ran down Chamberlain Street with about 100 other people. He said that he was not conscious of any firing when he ran down Chamberlain Street.

Mr Harkin drew level with the entrance to Block 1 of the Rossville Flats when he heard a shot. He said that there were about 50 or 60 people trying to get through the gap between Block 1 and 2. He turned and saw that there was a boy on the ground. Mr Harkin saw people go to the boy and turn him over.

Mr Harkin saw Michael Bridge walk towards the soldiers shouting ‘shoot me.’ A soldier on the Chamberlain Street side of an APC shot Mr Bridge in the thigh. He thinks that the photograph of a man by himself at the entrance of the car park is Michael Bridge. Mr Harkin said that Michael Bridge was about 10 yards from the soldier when he was shot.

8.1.2 South of the Rossville Flats

Mr Harkin could not get through the gap between Blocks 1 and 2. He said that there was still a lot of shooting as he crawled along the wall in front of Block 2. He got through the gap between Block 2 and 3 and reached the alleyway behind Joseph Place. He was not conscious of anyone who had been shot as he got to the alleyway.

8.2 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS

8.2.1 Barrier 14

Mr Harkin agreed that he did not hear shooting until he reached the Rossville Flats car park. He agreed that there was no shooting during the snatch operation.

8.2.2 Rossville Flats car park

Mr Harkin thinks that the soldier who shot Michael Bridge was kneeling down. He said that Michael Bridge was not carrying anything. He said Mr Bridge had his hands up and shouted ‘shoot me, shoot me.’

8.2.3 Patrols in the Bogside

Mr Harkin took part in patrols in the Bogside area with other residents. He said that the patrols were to protect shops from anyone who wanted to take advantage of the fact that it was a no-go area.

9. FRANCIS DUDDY’S EVIDENCE

9.1 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL

9.1.1 Corrections to statement

Mr Duddy said that he was confused when he first made his statement to the BSI and that no one had asked him to amend it. He did sign the statement that he made and agreed that the statement included an invitation to confirm that the contents were correct. He said that when he signed it he believed that it was a true account. He has subsequently made a number of corrections.

9.1.2 Barrier 14

Mr Duddy described himself as a hard-line rioter. He said that he had to take his place in a queue to throw a stone at the soldiers.

He said that he went into the Bookies. His brothers, Seamus and Malachy were inside. He said that Michael Bridge and Friday O’Kane were not there. He said that it was a riot situation and people were moving in and out. Mr Duddy got to the first floor of the Bookies. The windows of the Bookies were boarded up with wood.

Mr Duddy said that stones were thrown at the soldiers. He remembers one or two petrol bombs being thrown. He said he may be confusing this with news reports.

Mr Duddy said that when the APCs went through the barrier, he heard an officer saying ‘go, get them boys.’

9.1.3 Rossville Flats car park

Mr Duddy got to the bottom of Chamberlain Street and saw the group around Jack Duddy. He saw a group to his left at the gable of Chamberlain Street and went to them. He heard Michael Bridge shouting and saw him run towards a soldier. He then heard Michael Bridge say ‘he’s shot me.’

Mr Duddy could see lumps of concrete flying off Block 2 of the Rossville Flats. He thinks that he saw a TV cameraman and crew.

9.1.4 Patrick Doherty

Mr Duddy went through the gap between Blocks 2 and 3. He tried to give Patrick Doherty mouth to mouth resuscitation. He can be seen in the photographs of the people around Mr Doherty’s body.

9.2 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND THE WOUNDED

9.2.1 Patrick Doherty

Mr Duddy thinks that Patrick Walsh was with Patrick Doherty before he arrived. He found a rubber bullet in Mr Doherty’s pocket and agreed that it was routine to collect them as a souvenir.

Mr Duddy thought that a ricochet bullet may have hit Mr Doherty because the bullet wound appeared to be elongated rather than round. He agreed that in the horror and confusion of the day, there was plenty of room for error.

9.2.2 Michael Bridge

Mr Duddy agreed that there is a lot of inconsistencies between his evidence and the statement he gave to the BSI. He agreed that the first time he was in the presence of Michael Bridge was in the Rossville Flats car park.

9.3 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS

9.3.1 Bookies

Mr Duddy said that the door of the Bookies was open and he had not broken into it. When he made his statement, he thought that there were a lot of people inside the Bookies who were not there. He cannot remember the name of any of the five people he entered the Bookies with. He said that he had not spoken to anyone to try and jog his memory about who was in the Bookies.

9.3.2 Riots

Mr Duddy said that he had used petrol bombs in previous riots. He does not know where the petrol bombs came from. He said that crates of petrol bombs would be left out.

9.4 FURTHER QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL

9.4.1 Bookies

Mr Duddy said that there was between three and five people inside the Bookies. There were others at the door. No one had firearms. He does not recall anyone having anything to throw at the soldiers from inside the Bookies.

10. JOSEPH MOORE’S EVIDENCE

10.1 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL

10.1.1 Marches

Mr Moore said that from October 1971 to January 1972 there was at least one small civil rights march a day. He said that between 50 and 200 people would take part.

10.1.2 Pilots Row/Eden Place waste ground

Mr Moore saw 4 or 5 APCs drive down Rossville Street at the same time that Christy Lavery told him he had been hit in the face with a rubber bullet. Mr Moore became separated from Mr Lavery as he started to run. He saw a person hit by an APC in the Pilot Row/Eden Place waste ground.

10.1.3 Rossville Flats car park

Mr Moore waited for an opportunity to get through the gap between Block 1 and 2. There were still people on the waste ground. Mr Moore did not see people throwing stones at the Army. He saw an old man with grey hair being hit by soldiers with the butts of their rifles. He saw a man who he assumed had come from the waste ground or the back of Chamberlain Street. Mr Moore said that the man looked as if he was going towards the old man. Two soldiers were close to the western side of Chamberlain Street. Mr Moore said that one of the soldiers got down on one knee and he got the impression that he fired the shot which hit the man.

10.1.4 South of Block 2

Mr Moore huddled against the wall by the telephone box. He said that Bernard McGuigan ran out from the wall. He said that people called out ‘where do you think you’re going.’ He said that he had not heard anyone crying out.

Mr Moore saw a person crawl towards one of the raised islands close to Joseph Place. He heard the man shout and roll over. He went to Patrick Doherty and said that he was not far from the position that he had seen the person crawling towards. He could not say whether Patrick Doherty was the man he had seen crawling.

10.2 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND THE WOUNDED

10.2.1 South of Block 2

Mr Topolski showed Mr Moore a number of photographs of the area in between Joseph Place and Block 2 to try and find out whether the man that he described crawling towards the raised island was Patrick Doherty. There were four raised islands which ran parallel to the south of Block 2. Mr Doherty’s body can be seen just above the island in front of the steps leading to Fahan Street. Mr Moore agreed that the person he described in his 1972 statement became the ‘young lad’ that he referred to in his BSI statement.

10.3 FURTHER QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL

10.3.1 South of the Rossville Flats

Mr Topolski said that the evidence about the crawling man is important because the person is probably Patrick Doherty and the soldiers’ lawyers are suggesting that it is a missing casualty. Mr Moore said that he could not take his evidence further than that of his 1972 account where he describes the man crawling towards the raised island.

11 BRIAN McGEE’S EVIDENCE

11.1 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL

11.1.1 Rossville Flats car park

Mr McGee was at the western gable end of Chamberlain Street with 20 or 30 other people. He thinks that some people may have stood facing the Army for a few minutes. He cannot recall whether they were throwing stones.

Mr McGee could see the front of an APC facing the entrance to the car park and two more APCs at other points.

BLOODY SUNDAY INQUIRY Week 23

5 - 8 MARCH 2001

BLOODY SUNDAY INQUIRY
Week 23