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26 - 29 NOVEMBER 2001
This week the Tribunal heard from Michael Quinn who was shot through the shoulder and face as he ran towards the southwest alleyway of Glenfada Park North. He saw a man; he believes to be James Wray, whose head hit the kerbstone as Mr Quinn was shot.
The Tribunal began to hear civilian evidence about sector 5 (the shooting of Patrick Doherty, Bernard McGuigan, Daniel McGowan and Patrick Campbell). Patrick Walsh, the man who crawled towards Patrick Doherty, gave evidence. Donna Harkin described seeing Mr Doherty shot as he raised himself on all fours to try and get to the alleyway behind Joseph Place.
A full transcript of proceedings is available at http://www.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org.uk
1 NELL McCAFFERTY’S EVIDENCE
Nell McCafferty continued giving her evidence.
1.1
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND WOUNDED
1.1.1
Civilian gunman
Ms McCafferty was asked why she had gone past Free Derry Corner to the area around Lecky Road and Westland Street. She said that it is possible that she was showing her friends the way home.
Ms McCafferty agreed that neither of her friends had any recollection of seeing the two red haired civilian gunmen. She agreed that it is possible that she had seen the two gunmen on a day other than Bloody Sunday. She agreed that this would tie in with the fact that her two friends had not seen the gunmen.
Ms McCafferty agreed that she had not mentioned seeing the gunmen in her article in the Irish Times the following day. She agreed that her memory is very fallible.
1.1.2
Patrick Doherty
Ms McCafferty said that she had never heard of the Patrick Doherty who had been killed on Bloody Sunday. She did not know that he was a 29-year-old man who worked in Dupont. She said that it was not her view or general knowledge that Mr Doherty was in the IRA.
Ms MacDermott told the Tribunal that the Praxis document that states that Ms McCafferty said Paddy Doherty was in the IRA was of unknown provenance. The document had been attributed to Praxis because it had the same typescript as the Praxis documents. Mr Clarke said that the document had been obtained from Praxis.
1.1.3
Glenfada Park North
Ms McCafferty does not remember a shot breaking the glass of a window in Glenfada Park North.
Ms McCafferty said that it is possible that she could be wrong about James Wray was on the other side of the fence from her rather than on the garden path. She has an image of Mr Wray falling and being on the ground. She agreed that she might have seen him through the garden fence.
1.2
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS
1.2.1
Civilian gunmen
Ms McCafferty said that her sister, Carmel was not with her when she saw the red haired gunmen. She did not know whether Father O’Gara had seen the two gunmen.
Ms McCafferty does not remember at the time of writing the book about Peggy Deery that the Catholic priests had mentioned seeing Father Daly’s gunman. In the book, she had written that had the information about Father O’Gara had been divulged, it would have been a ‘propaganda godsend.’
1.2.2
IRA
Ms McCafferty said that she came from the Marxist wing of the civil rights movement. She knew the Official IRA people who would have been active in the civil rights movement in a civilian capacity from 1969.
Ms McCafferty did not know of any Provisional IRA men who had been actively shooting on Bloody Sunday.
1.2.3
Father Daly’s gunman
Ms McCafferty said that she interviewed Father Daly’s gunman.
1.3
FURTHER QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL
1.3.1
Father Daly’s gunman
Ms McCafferty said that she interviewed Father Daly’s gunman on the Thursday or Friday after Bloody Sunday. She also interviewed him this year for an article for the Sunday Tribune. She said that his name was common currency in Derry.
Ms McCafferty was asked about the evidence of Willie Breslin. Mr Breslin said that Father Daly’s gunman had come into Ms McCafferty’s house. She does not recall him being there but said that last year, he had told her that he had been in her house and that he had on him the revolver that he had used that day.
1.3.2
Michael McDaid
Ms McCafferty said that the reference to ‘Mickey’ in her article for the Irish Times was to Michael McDaid.
1.3.3
Praxis notes
Ms McCafferty said that she has no recollection of hearing a window shatter.
She did not say that she had seen two Provo gunmen because she would not have known which wing of the IRA the men belonged to.
2
MICHAEL QUINN’S EVIDENCE
Michael Quinn was 17 years old at the time of Bloody Sunday. He was shot in the right shoulder and the bullet passed through his face as he was running towards the southwest alleyway of Glenfada Park North.
2.1
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL
2.1.1
Gun battle
Mr Quinn said that violence was very much part of the scene at the time of Bloody Sunday. On the previous Friday, he had been caught up in a gun battle as he returned home from school. Someone had opened fire at the army sandbag position on Bligh’s lane.
2.1.2
William Street
Mr Quinn was standing chatting to a friend when a man asked him to carry the other end of a civil rights banner. He subsequently discovered that the man was James Wray when he recognised his photograph in the Irish News.
Mr Quinn started running towards the rubble barricade when he saw an APC coming down William Street.
2.1.3
Rossville Street
Mr Quinn heard four shots as he climbed over the rubble barricade. He has no idea where the shots had been fired from. He has a memory of soldiers at Kells Walk. Mr Quinn was shown a series of photographs of the soldiers at Kells Walk. He said that he remembers seeing a smaller group than the group that can be seen in the photographs. He remembers seeing a tall, black soldier who he thought was an officer because he seemed to be in control.
Mr Quinn saw a group of girls at the rubble barricade. He was not aware of any stone throwing. Mr Quinn saw a soldier at the north end of Block 1. The soldier reached into his pouch and put a bullet in the breach of his rifle. He remembers seeing the sun glinting on the metal of the bullet. Mr Quinn said that he had not put this in his 1972 statement because he had not realised about the allegations that soldiers had private supplies of bullets.
Mr Quinn saw Charlie McGuigan standing at the north end of Glenfada Park South who told him that he was going to get out because he had seen his father on the other side of the road.
2.1.4
Glenfada Park North
Mr Quinn said that his next memory is of trying to take cover behind the gable wall of Glenfada Park North. He looked back up Rossville Street and saw the soldiers at Kells Walk. He remembers a black soldier, a soldier with a radio and what appeared to be an officer giving directions.
Mr Quinn said that he thinks that people may have begun to throw stones but he had not seen anybody fall at the rubble barricade.
Mr Quinn walked up the inside of the eastern block of Glenfada Park North. He does not remember how long he was in Glenfada Park North for but after some time he saw two young men in the northeast corner of the courtyard. The youths were about the same age as Mr Quinn and were clearly nervous. They were looking through the gap at the northeast corner of Glenfada Park North onto Rossville Street. One youth had a denim jacket and dark hair and the other had fair hair and a quilted anorak.
Mr Quinn said that the boy with fair hair had something in his left side pocket that might have been a nail bomb. It looked like a coke tin with grey tape and a piece of material coming out of the top. The boys were peering out towards the Army. Mr Quinn said that he was frightened that they might do something that would draw the Army in. He was concerned that the object might have been a nail bomb but could not say for sure whether it was.
Mr Quinn saw a man coming from the northwest corner and say to the boys ‘put those away, you will get people killed.’ Mr Quinn does not remember the boys holding anything in their hands. The boys did what they were told and left by the northwest corner with the man who had come from that corner.
Mr Quinn said that the Sunday Times note is inaccurate. The boy with the long fair hair was not wearing a denim jacket.
Not long afterwards, Mr Quinn noticed a young fellow standing near the northwest entrance to Glenfada Park North. He suddenly heard a scream and the boy collapsed to the ground. The boy was tall and thin and about 18 or 19 years old. Mr Quinn did not hear the shot that hit the boy, he just went down. He saw a hole in the boy’s leg and a dark patch on his trousers, which he presumed, was blood, covering the top of his right thigh.
Mr Quinn looked round the northeast corner of Glenfada Park North where he assumed the shot had come from, but he could not see soldiers there and when he looked back, the boy had gone. Mr Quinn agreed that his Widgery evidence placed the boy closer to the southwest corner facing the northwest corner.
Mr Quinn said that his memory is of seeing the boy looking towards the northeast corner and being on his right hand side. (Mr Quinn was standing with his back against the middle of the eastern block of Glenfada Park North.) He agreed that it would have been difficult for someone wounded in the thigh to get out of the courtyard unassisted. He was not conscious of people standing near to the boy or anyone going to his aid.
Mr Quinn did not hear the shot that hit the young man. He just remembers him going down. There was a lot of shooting going on in the Rossville Street area. He saw the man fall in Glenfada Park North but the shots did not sound as if they were in there.
Mr Quinn heard shouts from the gable wall that there were people ‘dying out here’. He saw a group of people carrying the body of a young man across the courtyard. The man who he had seen carrying the civil rights banner was with them. Somebody ran into the courtyard and shouted that the Army was coming in. Mr Quinn can be seen in the photograph that shows the group carrying Michael Kelly across the courtyard.
Mr Quinn does not recall whether there were any cars in the courtyard. He made a break for the exit in the southwest corner of Glenfada Park North. As he got close to the alleyway, he felt a very hard thump in his face and saw flesh and blood coming out of it. He had been running bent over and the bullet struck his right shoulder, passed through his cheek and went out through his nose.
Mr Quinn stumbled and could see out of the corner of his eye, a man’s head hitting the ground. Mr Quinn did not stop but stumbled and ran on. He thinks that James Wray was shot as he recalls his head hitting the kerbstone. Mr Wray went down as Mr Quinn was going down.
Mr Quinn carried on running through the alleyway. As he went out of Glenfada Park North, he caught sight again of the man with the wound to his leg. The man was lying on the ground, propped up on one arm and nobody was with him.
2.1.5 First
aid
Mr Quinn said that a man came down a garden path in Abbey Park and took him by the arm. They ran over the Old Bog Road, where he met two school friends, Bernard McAnamey and Gerry Roddy. They took him to Blucher Street where Eibhlin Lafferty and Pauline Lynch treated him. He was put in a small yellow mini and taken to St Mary’s school in the Creggan.
2.1.6
Sunday Times
Mr Quinn recalls speaking two journalists from the Sunday Times in a hotel. The notes state that Mr Quinn had spoken to them ‘under guarantee of total anonymity.’ Mr Quinn does not recall asking for anonymity. He said that he had described what had happened to him and that at the end of the interview, the journalists had put a number of propositions to him for him to disagree or agree with. The journalists had asked him whether there were nail bombs in Glenfada Park. Mr Quinn had said ‘well there were, but they were taken out of the area pretty quickly.’
The notes states that there were two cars in Glenfada Park with known IRA men in them. Mr Quinn said that he has no recollection of seeing cars. There were no IRA men who would be known to him.
The notes record Mr Quinn’s evidence about the object that looked like a nail bomb as there being more than one nail bomb in the hands of both of or certainly one of the youths. Mr Quinn said that he has no recollection of the detail of that discussion. Mr Clarke suggested that it was possible that Mr Quinn had told the Sunday Times what he had surmised or that his recollection at the time was clearer.
Mr Quinn said that the note about him hearing from a close source that a senior Official IRA man had arrived on the scene and told the nail bombers to go away was incorrect.
Mr Quinn has no recollection of hearing that a Provisional IRA man had been shot in the chest in the Glenfada area and that the man had been carrying a gun.
2.2
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND WOUNDED
2.2.1
Glenfada Park North
Mr Quinn did not know Joseph Friel. He said the note in his Widgery statement about the man shot in the leg in Glenfada Park North was ‘not Joseph Friel’ was something that someone else had added in.
Mr Quinn said that he did not see the man being carried away. He agreed that it is possible that his current recollection of the location of the man was shot in the leg could be mistaken.
Mr Quinn agreed that he did not know whether what one of the boys he had seen in Glenfada Park North might have been carrying was a nail bomb. He had never seen a nail bomb before. He did not hear any nail bombs explode that day. He said that the two boys left some five minutes before the Army came into Glenfada Park.
The young man shot in the leg had been doing nothing other than looking in the direction of the northeast corner.
2.2.2
Rossville Street
Mr Quinn saw a soldier reach into his pouch, pull out a bullet and put it into the breech of his rifle.
2.2.3
Gerard Donaghy
The Sunday Times notes state that one of the descriptions of the two young men in Glenfada Park who might have been carrying a nail bomb ‘fits the description of Gerard Donaghy perfectly.’ Mr Quinn said that he did not know Gerard Donaghy.
Mr Treacy said that neither of the descriptions of the two young men matches Gerard Donaghy as one had fair hair and the other was wearing a fawn coloured jacket.
Mr Quinn said that the morning after Bloody Sunday, he was given a newspaper with the photographs of people who were shot on Bloody Sunday. He did not recognise Gerard Donaghy as anyone who was in Glenfada Park or as one of the two that he considered might be carrying nail bombs.
2.3
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS
2.3.1
Glenfada Park North
Mr Quinn did not leave the footpath in the middle of the eastern side inside Glenfada Park North until he tried to make a run for it.
He said that the man he thinks was James Wray was just ahead of him and to his right. The man went down almost simultaneously as Mr Quinn.
Mr Quinn was in Glenfada Park North for about 10 minutes. He was shown some footage filmed from an Army helicopter that shows the courtyard before the APCs entered Rossville Street. Mr Quinn agreed that a car can be seen in the middle of the courtyard. He has no recollection of seeing cars in the courtyard and said that it was not there when he was there.
2.3.2
Sunday Times notes
Mr Quinn thinks that the Sunday Times team offered him anonymity. He had just made a statement for the Widgery Inquiry and did not want the Sunday Times team to produce something that would be at variance with what he had given at Widgery.
3
EUGENE BRADLEY’S EVIDENCE (aka Thomas Lawrence Bradley)
3.1.1
Glenfada Park North
Mr Bradley was running down the eastern edge of the Glenfada Park car park. There was a man a few feet in front of him, running in the same direction. Mr Bradley was conscious of a bullet that whizzed past his ear and hit the man in the back, near his right shoulder. The man fell on the footpath.
Mr Bradley and Gerry McCallion tried to pick the man up but he was too heavy. Mr Bradley had heard two or three shots. He never learned who the man was. The man was about five foot nine and was wearing a dark overcoat. He was in his mid 30s to 40s. Mr Bradley saw soldiers at the northeastern corner of Glenfada Park North.
3.1.2
Rossville Street
4.1
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL
4.1.1
Joseph Place Flats
Mrs Doherty was with her sister and Tommy Meehan. When she heard that the APCs were coming in, she ran to the Joseph Place flats and sheltered behind the wooden slats in the middle of the first block of flats.
Mrs Doherty could see the area around the Glenfada Park flats. She could hear the sound of shooting which seemed to be coming from the front and rear of the Joseph Place flats. Mrs Doherty said that she was not mistaken in thinking that the shooting was coming from the city walls.
Mr Meenan said ‘they are shooting people,’ and Mrs Doherty said that he must have seen something to the front of Joseph Place.
4.1.2
Rubble barricade
Mrs Doherty could see two men lying behind the rubble barricade. She thought that they were trying to take cover and did not see any injury on either of the men. She saw an old man walking towards the barricade. The man was waving his hands in the air. She saw a red mark appear on the man’s shirt and he crumpled. She could not tell where the shot had been fired from. Mrs Doherty deduced that this was Alexander Nash when she heard after Bloody Sunday that an old man had been shot at the rubble barricade.
4.1.3
South of the Rossville Flats
Mrs Doherty saw Bernard McGuigan waving a white hankie in the air. Her view was blocked and she could only see his hands. She could see a soldier at the northeast corner of Glenfada Park South. Mrs Doherty said that Mr McGuigan was trying to move forward in the direction of the soldier. The soldier stopped and turned towards Mr McGuigan. The soldier went down on one knee, fired and then calmly stood up and continued walking as if nothing had happened.
Mrs Doherty had seen two other soldiers apprehending people who were at the northeast corner of Glenfada Park South. The soldier who shot Mr McGuigan had not been involved in arresting these people. The people had already been moved before Mr McGuigan was shot. The soldier had looked at Mr McGuigan for about one minute before he shot him.
4.1.4
St Eugene’s cathedral
Mrs Doherty went to Tommy Meehan’s house. About one hour after the shooting finished Mrs Doherty heard soldiers arguing by St Eugene’s cathedral. One soldier said ‘we have killed the fenian bastards today.’ Another soldier said ‘it is all right, you bastards are going home tonight, we are staying.’
4.2
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND WOUNDED
4.2.1
Alexander Nash
Mrs Doherty agreed that she could have been mistaken in attaching the name Alexander Nash to the old man she had seen shot at the rubble barricade. She has no memory of the man she had seen wearing a flat cap.
4.2.2
Bernard McGuigan
Mrs Doherty said that the soldier she had seen shoot Mr McGuigan was well built and had a blackened face.
5 KEVIN BARRETT’S EVIDENCE
5.1
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL
5.1.1
Rioting
Mr Barrett said that he was a volatile character who would often take part in street riots. He had been involved in disturbances when shots had been fired at the Army. He thinks that this may have happened at about half a dozen riots before Bloody Sunday.
Mr Barrett had seen a boy shot by the Army during a riot in Laburnam Terrace. The soldier had fired in a panic, as if put under extreme pressure by the rioters.
Mr Barrett said that the signal that someone was going to shoot at the Army was given by word of mouth. There would be a reduction in the stone throwing and the crowd would part. He said that Thompson machine guns would be used. Mr Barrett said that he had seen occasions when a gunman stood amongst the rioters and fired. He cannot remember whether this was before Bloody Sunday.
On some occasions, he would have an idea which wing of the IRA, the gunmen belonged to. At the start, it would be a mixture of Stickies and Provos but the Provos became more prominent.
5.1.2
Stewarding
Mr Barrett said that he did not take part in the riot on Bloody Sunday. He was asked to be a steward. He felt that the organisers wanted as many stewards as possible. He was told to try and keep some sort of control. Mr Barrett said that the talk at Bishops Field was that they would be prevented from going to the Guildhall and was not surprised to learn that they were going to Free Derry Corner.
5.1.3
Barrier 14
Mr Barrett identified himself in a photograph showing the people in front of the lorry. There were a number of stewards at the front of the lorry.
Mr Barrett cannot recall the incident that Patrick Bradley described in his evidence. Mr Bradley said that Mr Barrett had been hit on the back by a soldier who lent over the barrier and hit him on the back with a baton.
Mr Barrett was hit by a rubber bullet after he had moved away from barrier 14 and was near to the barrier at Little James Street.
5.1.4
Rossville Flats car park
Mr Barrett ran towards the gap between Blocks 1 and 2 of the Rossville Flats. He saw the door of an APC burst open and one soldier carrying an SLR came out. The soldier had the butt of his rifle tucked into his shoulder and as he stood at the back of the APC, panned his rifle towards the people who were making their way through the gap. He did not shoot. Mr Barrett said that the soldier was about 5ft 11in and could not say whether he was black or camouflaged.
5.1.5
South of the Rossville Flats
Mr Barrett came out of the alleyway between Blocks 1 and 2. He saw the body of Bernard McGuigan.
Mr Barrett took cover in a garden at Joseph Place. He was not aware of any other bodies in the area.
Mr Barrett walked towards Free Derry Corner, keeping close to the Joseph Place houses in case the shooting started again from the walls. He saw two or three men coming from either the direction of the rubble barricade or the Rossville Flats. The men were carrying a young boy face down. He said that it was possible that the boy could have been brought from Lisfannon Park. He heard that the boy had been shot. He cannot recall seeing any blood or bandages on the boy. Mr Barrett never found out the names of the boy or the men carrying him. Mr Barrett said that he later learned that the boy had died en route to hospital.
5.2
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND WOUNDED
5.2.1 South
of the Rossville Flats
Mr Barrett was standing south of the Rossville Flats, looking towards Glenfada Park North. He does not recall looking in the direction of Fahan Street. Mr Barrett said that there were some people taking refuge along Joseph Place. He does not recall seeing the body of Patrick Doherty.
As he ran towards Joseph Place, he heard the sound of shooting. He said that he felt he wanted protection from the city walls.
5.3
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS
5.3.1 Riots
Mr Barrett said that he had quite a lot of experience of rioting. At about six occasions, before Bloody Sunday, the violence had involved firearms.
5.3.2
Barrier 14
Mr Barrett said that he had seen worse riots than what was taking place at barrier 14. Some of the boys had gone into derelict house on the south side of William Street.
Mr Barrett did not see anyone break into the Bookmakers.
Mr Barrett said that spitting went on for 5 to 10 minutes. Rubber bullets would have been fired after stones had been thrown.
6 DENNIS IRWIN’S EVIDENCE
6.1
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL
6.1.1
William Street
Mr Irwin said that someone told him that a man had been shot in the foot near Tanner’s Row. He was under the impression that other people thought that the shot had been fired from the direction of Great James Street.
Mr Irwin continued walking down William Street. He said that the lorry leading the march turned into Chamberlain Street. He continued to walk towards barrier 14. He said that the Army started throwing tear gas from Little James Street. He felt ill because of the gas and took a few moments to recover.
6.1.2
Rossville Street
Mr Irwin saw the APCs move in. He saw Gerard McKinney standing with his hands at his side. He saw a soldier take up a crouching position and start shooting. Mr Irwin glanced back and saw Gerard McKinney on the ground.
6.1.3
Glenfada Park North
Mr Irwin said that he saw two boys on the rubble barricade watching the APCs. He saw a grey haired man run out to the boys.
Mr Irwin ran from the gable end to the alley leading to Glenfada Park South. He caught a view of soldiers and heard bullets hitting a wall.
6.1.4
Blucher Street
Mr Irwin saw a crowd standing around a boy who was lying on the ground near Toye’s shop. The boy’s face and chest were covered with blood.
6.2
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS
6.2.1
Rubble barricade
Mr Irwin said that he has a clear memory of no one around the two boys that he saw on the rubble barricade.
7
EDMUND MELAUGH’S EVIDENCE
7.1
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL
7.1.1
Barrier 14
Mr Melaugh went on the march with two friends. He said that at Barrier 14 there was verbal abuse followed by stone throwing. The soldiers behind the barricade threw stones at the crowd. He assumed that it was the soldiers who had thrown gas canisters when he saw the gas.
Mr Melaugh retreated when the water cannon came up. He lost his friends and ended up in Waterloo Street.
7.1.2
Butcher’s Gate
Mr Melaugh said that he saw a soldier standing under the arch just outside Butcher’s Gate. The soldier was on his own and Mr Melaugh had no idea which Regiment he belonged to. He did not see any soldiers on the walls around him. Mr Melaugh said that he thought that the soldier was startled because he drew his rifle up and aimed in Mr Melaugh’s direction.
7.1.3
Rossville Flats car park
Mr Melaugh ran to the walkway leading to the north end of Block 3 of the Rossville Flats. As he ran, he could see soldiers moving towards the Rossville Flats car park and people hiding behind the low wall in front of Block 2.
There were other people running through the car park. Mr Melaugh could see APCs and soldiers on foot. He said that it looked as if the APCs were trying to run people down.
As he ran along the car park side of Block 2, Mr Melaugh heard shots fired and took cover behind the low wall in front of Block 2. He did not hear any people planning to take on the Army.
Mr Melaugh said that he went into the car park because he wanted to defend the Bogside from the soldiers. He would have thrown stones at them. He did not have any stones, missiles or weapons. He did not make any decision with any people to take on the Army.
Mr Melaugh saw someone lying in the middle of the car park with Father Daly. He called to the others that they should get the individual out of the way. Mr Melaugh said that he recognised Michael Bridge behind the low wall.
Mr Melaugh could see soldiers. One soldier was shooting over the front end of an APC in the direction of Block 2. He did not see Michael Bridge standing in the car park.
Mr Melaugh said that people started to pick up Jack Duddy, to carry him to safety. Mr Melaugh ran for cover through the gap between Blocks 1 and 2.
7.1.4 South
of the Rossville Flats
Mr Melaugh does not remember seeing anyone lying on the ground as he came through the gap. He could see other people lying on the ground south of the rubble barricade and thought that they had been shot. He stayed at the gable end of Block 1 for a few minutes. He does not remember anybody who was injured being brought around the gable end. He did not see anyone at the rubble barricade with visible injuries and he did not see anyone throwing missiles at the soldiers at that time.
Mr Melaugh could see shots hitting the three-penny bits. He thought that the shots were being fired from further up Rossville Street as the bullets were hitting the north side of the brickwork.
Mr Melaugh could see 4 or 5 soldiers advancing into Glenfada Park North courtyard. They all had rifles and were shooting across the courtyard in the direction of Glenfada Park South. They did not appear to be taking cover. He could not see who the soldiers were shooting at.
He saw one soldier drop and kneel near to the entrance to the Glenfada Park North courtyard and point his gun towards the three-penny bits and the gable end of Block 1. Mr Melaugh did not see him fire.
There were other soldiers in Glenfada Park North, who were slightly behind the first soldier. Mr Melaugh cannot recall seeing civilians in the area.
7.1.5 South
of Block 2 of the Rossville Flats
Mr Melaugh ran along the shops on the southern side of Block 2. He entered the alleyway at the back of the Joseph Place flats. He could see people ahead of him, hiding in the alleyway. He heard someone say that there was shooting from the walls.
Mr Melaugh said that he heard someone behind him call ‘I am shot.’ He looked around and saw two wounded people at the entrance to the Joseph Place alleyway. He assumed that they had been behind him and running to the alleyway for cover when they were shot.
In his 1972 statement, Mr Melaugh said that he had seen both men fall at the end of the lane and that he and another man went out to help the man. He now has no recollection of seeing the men fall.
He thinks that the two men were shot fairly close to each other in time. When he went to get the first wounded man, he cannot be sure if the second man had been wounded.
7.1.6
Patrick Doherty
As Mr Melaugh was dragging one of the wounded men, he saw another man crawling on the ground. He said that he later recognised this man as Patrick Doherty from a photograph in the newspaper. Mr Melaugh said that Mr Doherty was calling that he had been shot and for someone to help him. Mr Melaugh crouched in the shelter of the low wall at the end of the alleyway. He said that he thought that he would be shot if he left the cover of the wall. He told Mr Doherty to lie still and not move. He thought he would make himself a target to be shot again if he kept crawling.
Mr Melaugh said that he did not actually see Mr Doherty being shot. He remembers that he was crawling towards the alleyway with his feet nearest Block 2 of the Rossville Flats. Mr Doherty was much further away from the Joseph Place alleyway than the other two men had been.
Mr Melaugh said that when he first saw Mr Doherty, he had the impression that he was crawling to avoid the shooting. He believed that Mr Doherty had seen the two people in front of him shot and went to the ground thinking it would save him. He does not recollect anyone else trying to reach Mr Doherty.
When the shooting finally died down, Mr Melaugh and another man went to help Mr Doherty. Mr Melaugh did not recognise anyone in the photograph showing the group of people that gathered around Mr Doherty. He cannot recall whether he helped to carry the body of Mr Doherty.
7.1.7
Bernard McGuigan
Mr Melaugh cannot remember with any certainty when he first saw the body of Bernard McGuigan. He wandered around and remembers seeing Father Mulvey waving a white handkerchief. He saw Bernard McGuigan’s body twice. Once Mr McGuigan’s face was uncovered and the second time it was covered.
7.1.8
1972 statement
Mr Melaugh said that he gave a statement at an abandoned shop on Central Drive. He is not sure whether it was the office for the Official IRA or Official Sinn Fein. It had some connection with some organisation.
Mr Melaugh said that the statement taker only wanted to hear his evidence about the Rossville Flats car park. This was because they only wanted to hear about people they knew had been shot. He was not discouraged from telling the civil rights people about any particular topic.
7.2
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND WOUNDED
7.2.1
Patrick Doherty
Mr Melaugh said that he thinks that Mr Doherty was crawling from the gap between Blocks 2 and 3 of the Rossville Flats.
Ms MacDermott suggested that his 1972 statement suggests that at the time his impression was that Mr Doherty was crawling from the flats rather than the gap.
Mr Melaugh said that a Knight of Malta turned Mr Doherty onto his back. He does not recognise the photograph of Patrick Walsh leading the group carrying Mr Doherty’s body away.
7.2.2
Mickey Bridge
Mr Melaugh agreed that he could have confused Michael Bridge for Michael Bradley in thinking that it was Mr Bridge behind the low wall in front of Block 2.
7.3
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS
7.3.1
Butcher’s Gate
Mr Melaugh left Barrier 14 when the water cannon was used. When he reached Waterloo Street, he was about 30 yards away from the soldier at Butcher’s Gate.
7.3.2
Rossville Flats car park
Mr Melaugh said that Jack Duddy’s body was being picked up as he was leaving the car park. The car park was pretty empty and there were still people trying to get through the gap.
7.3.3 South
of the Rossville Flats
Mr Melaugh said that when he emerged from the gap between Blocks 1 and 2, Bernard McGuigan was not on the ground. He stayed at the gable end for a few minutes. He does not recall hearing Geraldine Richmond having hysterics.
Mr Melaugh recalls 4 or 5 soldiers in Glenfada Park North. He was fearful because there was shooting and cannot remember seeing anybody being arrested. He could hear shooting as he ran along Block 2.
7.3.4
Daniel McGowan and Patrick Campbell
Mr Melaugh had entered the alleyway behind Joseph Place when he heard people saying they were shot. He came out of the alleyway back onto the pavement area. He did not have to come out into the open ground. The people were close to the entrance to the alleyway, so he just had to lean out and pull them in. He does not recollect seeing any people on the other side of the pavement underneath Block 2.
Mr Melaugh said that the first man he helped was wounded somewhere around the hip. The second man was shot in the lower part of the leg.
Mr Melaugh was asked about the statement of Daniel McGowan. Mr McGowan said that he noticed Mr Campbell when he saw him staggering and shouting that he had been shot. Mr Melaugh agreed that it was someone shouting that he had been shot which had attracted his attention.
Mr Melaugh thinks that he dragged the man with the leg wound. He knows that he and another person had helped to drag two people into the alleyway.
7.3.5
Patrick Doherty
Mr Melaugh could not say for certain whether Mr Doherty had crawled from the gap between Blocks 2 and 3 because he did not see him emerge from the gap.
He first saw Mr Doherty at a position on the ground between Block 2 and the back of the Joseph Place flats. He only noticed Mr Doherty when Mr Doherty called and he had stopped moving at that stage. Mr Melaugh did not see Mr Doherty getting shot.
7.3.6 1972
statement
Mr Melaugh said that he gave a statement in what he now thinks was the Officials shop.
8 THOMAS HARRIGAN’S EVIDENCE
8.1
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL
8.1.1
Rossville Flats car park
Mr Harrigan saw a girl of about 12 years of age who appeared to have come out of Chamberlain Street and was hysterical. He caught her and tried to comfort her. As he was doing this, he saw an APC at the north of Block 1. He agreed that he could be mistaken in his memory of seeing a soldier perched on the mudguard of the APC.
Mr Harrigan noticed a man he believed was in his teens. The man was running towards the gap between Blocks 1 and 2. Mr Harrigan heard the cracks of live gunfire and saw the youth hold his right leg and fall to the ground. He did not know whether the youth was shot or had simply fallen. He did not see any blood.
Mr Harrigan pushed his way through the alleyway between the flats. He told two Knights of Malta about the youth who had fallen.
8.1.2 South
of the Rossville Flats
Mr Harrigan saw two men fall to the south of Block 1. He assumed that bullets had hit them. He saw masonry come off the cladding from above the telephone box at the south end of Block 1. A piece of masonry hit Mr Devlin on the head.
8.1.3 1972
statements
Mr Harrigan thinks that he made a statement in Mrs Bond’s house. In the statement, he describes seeing two civilians fall. Mr Harrigan thinks that it is a reference to the two he had seen at the south of the Rossville Flats.
Mr Harrigan agreed that it is his voice on the Kathleen Keville tape. He has no recollection of making the tape. He has no idea why there is no reference to having seen two men fall.
8.2
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND WOUNDED
8.2.1
South of Block 2 of the Rossville Flats
Mr Harrigan said that as he ran from Block 2 to the back of Joseph Place, he did not see any other bodies. By this time, he had seen the body of Bernard McGuigan.
8.3
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS
8.3.1
Rossville Flats car park
Mr Harrigan said that he heard live shots before he saw the APCs moving towards the Rossville Flats car park.
9
PATRICK WALSH’S EVIDENCE
9.1
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL
9.1.1
Barrier 14
Mr Walsh said that he was very near the front of the march. There were a number of young boys throwing stones at the barrier. A number of people, mostly stewards were trying to pull the boys away. The Army were calling names. Mr Walsh also tried to pull the people throwing stones away. When that failed, Mr Walsh joined in with the stone throwing. He felt angry and may have tried to remove the wooden barrier. Dye from the water cannon and a rubber bullet hit him. Mr Walsh was wringing wet and sensed that it was time to move away. He noticed an APC getting ready at the barrier.
9.1.2
Chamberlain Street
Mr Walsh ran south along Chamberlain Street. The paras were chasing people. Mr Walsh said that about 40 people formed a line across Chamberlain Street as a blockade and faced the soldiers. They were along Chamberlain Street on the southside of the junction of Chamberlain Street and Harvey Street.
He saw 7 or 8 paras near the junction of Chamberlain Street and Harvey Street. The people forming the line across the road were stationary.
Mr Walsh saw two APCs on the Eden Place/Pilots Row waste ground. He saw two soldiers jump out of the APCs. One went down on one knee and the other was standing. The APCs reversed out of Mr Walsh’s sight.
Mr Walsh saw an old lady open the front door of a house in Chamberlain Street. Live ammunition was fired and Mr Walsh heard a whoosh. He put his hand up to tell the lady to stay inside. The minute he moved, he saw the brick getting whacked out of the window and heard a live shot. He did not realise that a live bullet had been fired until he saw the damage to the brickwork. The bullet had hit a brick above the window. Mr Walsh only heard one shot and assumed that the soldier who fired it must have been one of the two soldiers that he had seen. He assumed the soldiers were aiming at him, one of the other men lined across the street or a photographer he had seen coming down Harvey Street.
Mr Walsh thinks that he threw a brick at the soldier furthest away from him in the area of Eden Place, before the first shot was fired. He was standing in the niche of the Bookies shop when he threw the brick. He threw the brick before the lady came out of the house. He could not recall whether anyone else threw a brick or stone at the soldier. Mr Walsh agreed that there was some sort of standoff between the two groups. He did not witness people advancing on the soldiers in the alleyway leading to Eden Place.
9.1.3
Rossville Flats car park
Mr Walsh ran towards the Rossville Flats car park without looking behind him. He recalls a foreign photographer somewhere taking photographs and seeing crowds of people running through the car park. He could hear shooting but could not tell where it was coming from. He thinks that he ran through the gap between Blocks 2 and 3.
The notes from the Sunday Times archive state that Mr Walsh flattened himself against the wall by the playground on the east side of the car park with about 30 others. Mr Walsh did not see Jack Duddy shot but recalls Father Daly huddled beside a body. Mr Walsh does not recall exactly where he was when he saw this. However he stands by what he said to the Sunday Times team.
The Sunday Times notes state that the firing got heavier and Mr Walsh could see bullets striking the wall near the passageway at the top of the flats. Mr Walsh crawled along the wall to the steps were two people were crouching down out of the firing line. The notes state that bullets were hitting the wall but Mr Walsh did not know whether he said that they were aimed at him. Mr Walsh said that he did not think that he said the bullets were hitting the wall. He thinks that they hit the ground around where he was taking shelter. He can recall concrete steps but not the exact location.
The Sunday Times notes state that Mr Walsh saw Father Daly’s gunman and that he had said ‘that man with a pistol was, in my view, a hero, he came out along the wall and poked his arm round and fired twice I think, maybe three times’. The note states that he thought that Father Daly should not have told the Widgery tribunal about the gunman. Mr Walsh said that he did not see the gunman. He does not think that he had learnt, by the time of the interview, that Father Daly had given evidence about seeing a gunman.
He cannot recall the Sunday Times team asking him whether he had seen a gunman. He does not think that he would have forgotten it. Mr Walsh said that it is possible that he had commented that Father Daly should not have given evidence and said that it would have been an off the cuff comment.
Mr Walsh recalls shooting while he was trying to get away. There was a smaller man who was panicking and Mr Walsh said that he lay on top of him. He cannot remember the exact location. Someone shouted ‘they have stopped.’ Mr Walsh said that he let the man go and the man ran with a crowd.
Mr Walsh was shown a series of photographs of the group crouched at the retaining wall. Mr Walsh can be seen with his hand on top of a young man who is lying flat. Mr Walsh said that he thought that this was the young man who was panicking. Shooting was going on as the photographs were taken but Mr Walsh could not say where it was coming from. Patrick Doherty can be seen kneeling along the retaining wall. Mr Walsh said that he does not remember seeing Mr Doherty at the wall.
Mr Walsh recalls a girl’s voice shouting directions for the group to move when the soldier was not looking. He thinks that this was after he had helped the panicked boy. The Sunday Times note states that Mr Walsh ‘got into his stride when a youth cannoned into him and they both fell – the boy said “Mister, I am shot, I am shot.”’ The note states that Mr Walsh ran his hands over the boy looking for a wound and found a rent in the boy’s jacket. He lifted the boy’s jacket and saw a wound in his back. Mr Walsh could not say whether it was the same boy that had cannoned into him.Mr Walsh was shown a photograph of Patrick McDaid’s bullet wound. He said that he thinks that the wound he had seen on the boy was less circular than can be seen in the photograph. Mr Clarke suggested that the boy that Mr Walsh is photographed with at the retaining wall was Patrick McDaid. (The same photograph that Mr Walsh identified as him calming the panicked boy.)
Mr Walsh remembers picking Patrick McDaid up and running with him, supporting him to the alleyway. He waited for the girl to shout when it was alright to move and then ran to the alleyway behind Joseph Place. Another man helped him take Mr McDaid into the second house at Joseph Place.
9.1.4 South
of the Rossville Flats
The Sunday Times notes state that when Mr Walsh came out again, the first thing that he saw was Paddy Campbell who was staggering towards the entrance of the alleyway behind Joseph Place, clutching his back. Mr Campbell fell forward into the mouth of the alleyway and was taken into one of the houses.
The note continues that Mr Walsh saw two men rush from the alleyway and pick up a man who was crawling towards it. They got one arm each and dragged the man along on his back. The man seemed to be hit in the leg. Mr Walsh has no recollection of this but agreed that the account he had given to the Sunday Times of seeing Paddy Campbell and Daniel McGowan would be correct.
9.1.5
Patrick Doherty
The Sunday Times notes state that Mr Walsh saw the body of a man lying about half way across the space between the passageway and where he was in the alleyway behind Joseph Place. He thought that the man was still alive and could see slight movements and hear groaning from time to time. The notes say that Mr Walsh crawled out to the body and turned the man on his back and that he had not recognised him as Patrick Doherty. Mr Walsh said that he cannot now recall turning Mr Doherty and thinks that he was already on his back when he crawled out to him.
Mr Walsh was shown photographs of him crawling to the body of Patrick Doherty as Mr Doherty lay on his back. Mr Walsh recalls that shooting was going on as he creeped out towards Mr Doherty. The photographs show Mr Doherty lying on his back with his feet facing the direction of either Block 2 of the Rossville Flats or the gap between Blocks 2 and 3. Mr Doherty’s head is towards the alleyway behind Joseph Place.
The Sunday Times notes state that Mr Walsh turned Mr Doherty on his back and at that point there was more shooting and bullets hit the wall by the steps. The girl shouted down to be careful and Mr Walsh crawled back to the alleyway and crawled out again to Mr Doherty. Mr Walsh said that bullets were hitting the ground but he could not tell how close they were landing. He agreed that this was the likely sequence of events.
The Sunday Times notes state that Mr Walsh was sure that Mr Doherty was still alive and he waited until the shooting stopped and crawled out to him again. The notes state that Mr Walsh crawled out once and turned Mr Doherty on his back, crawled back to the alleyway and crawled out to Mr Doherty again and then crawled back to the alleyway a second time. Mr Walsh remembers crawling out more than once but can only remember Mr Doherty lying on his back.
Mr Walsh said that when he was crawling towards Mr Doherty, he was not conscious of other civilians in the area. He now has no recollection of seeing one young man stepping out towards Mr Doherty but having to go to the ground when the shooting started again.
In his statement to the BSI, Mr Walsh said that he recalls running through the gap between Blocks 2 and 3 and hearing a thud. He has an image in his mind that he was running. He stopped and saw the body of Mr Doherty.
Mr Walsh searched Mr Doherty’s body for identification and weapons. As he lay with Mr Doherty, he heard the whoosh of bullets going over his head and striking the ground.
After a while, people came out. He remembers someone saying that the body he was with was Patrick Doherty. Mr Walsh does not remember what he did but thinks that he must have got up and walked towards the body of Bernard McGuigan. His present recollection is that he may only have seen Bernard McGuigan after Patrick Doherty had been taken to the ambulance.
Mr Walsh can be seen at the front of the group carrying Mr Doherty’s body to the ambulance.
9.1.6
Sunday Times notes
The Sunday Times notes state that when the bodies were being removed, Mr Walsh saw a man by the telephone box who he knew to be in the IRA. The man was sobbing and had a stone in his hand and was shouting ‘that’s all we had, stones against guns.’ The notes refer to a photograph of a distressed man. Mr Walsh does not know the man in the Gilles Peress photograph and does not think that he pointed the man out to the Sunday Times team.
9.2
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND WOUNDED
9.2.1
Patrick Doherty
Mr Walsh said that he had no way of pinpointing exactly where Mr Doherty was when he first saw him. He knows that Mr Doherty was behind him.
Ms MacDermott showed Peter McLaughlin’s evidence to Mr Walsh. Mr McLaughlin said that he saw Mr Walsh turn Mr Doherty on his back. Mr Walsh has no recollection of turning Mr Doherty on his back.
Mr Walsh remembers lifting Mr Doherty’s head off the ground and starting to say a prayer with him. He said that Mr Doherty did not speak.
9.3
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS
9.3.1
Patrick Doherty
Mr Walsh said that he did not hear Mr Doherty saying anything. He heard the noise of someone falling. Mr Walsh could not say how long it was between him hearing the noise and making the decision to crawl to Mr Doherty.
Mr Walsh does not remember seeing Mr Doherty at the retaining wall in the Rossville Flats car park. Mr Peter Clarke suggested that the photograph of Mr Doherty and two other people at the retaining wall suggests that they were looking intently at the gap between Blocks 2 and 3. He suggested that one of the figures had given up trying to get to the gap. Mr Walsh said that he had no idea why this might have happened.
Mr Walsh cannot say whether he sprinted through the gap between Blocks 2 and 3.
Mr Walsh vaguely remembers seeing Paddy Campbell. He cannot say whether he saw Mr Campbell before Mr Doherty.
10
JEAN MARIE McGEEHAN’S EVIDENCE (nee McGowan)
Ms McGeehan was 12 years old at the time of Bloody Sunday.
10.1
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL
10.1.1
South of the Rossville Flats
Ms McGeehan was watching from her living room window in Block 2 of the Rossville Flats, which overlooked Joseph Place. She could see people taking cover in the alleyway and backyards behind Joseph Place. She remembers seeing three men about five feet away from the wall of Block 2 of the flats.
Ms McGeehan saw the first man heading from Block 2 towards the alleyway at the back of the Joseph Place flats. She saw him stumble to his knees and get back up again. She remembers people in the alleyway taking the man into one of the houses.
Ms McGeehan did not see anyone in the gap between Block 2 and the Joseph Place flats. She saw a second man running and crumple to the ground as though one of his legs had gone from under him. She assumed that he had been shot in the leg. Just as he got to the alleyway, someone helped him further into the alleyway. Ms McGeehan does not know whether the second man went to the aid of the first man. The second man was alone.
In Ms McGeehan’s 1972 statement she said that the second man was shot in the leg as he ran over from the shops. She said that the man ran directly from below the window towards the alleyway. She would only have seen the man when he fell to the open ground.
Ms McGeehan said that she saw a third man just as the second man got to the alleyway behind Joseph Place. The third man was crawling on his stomach from the gap between Blocks 2 and 3 towards the alleyway behind Joseph Place. He was moving slowly and was coming from a point to her left. She assumed that he was dragging himself that way because he had seen what had happened to the second man. The man was about half way between Block 2 and the alleyway. She thought that he had stopped because he was afraid of the gunfire. The gunfire was still going on. People in the flat were saying ‘they’re still shooting.’ She could not say where the firing was coming from.
Ms McGeehan said that she thought that the third man was Paddy Doherty because when he was turned over she could see that he had a moustache. Mr Doherty was lying diagonally with his feet towards the gap between Blocks 2 and 3 and his head towards the alleyway at Joseph Place. He was lying on his front with his legs behind him and his arms bent in front of him in the position he had been when he was dragging himself along. Another man appeared from the back of the alleyway behind Joseph Place and started moving very slowly towards Mr Doherty.
Ms McGeehan said that her uncle opened the window and shouted to the man to be careful because of the shooting. She said that as the man crawled along, he was looking all around him. He kept stopping and starting and it took him a while to reach Mr Doherty. By the time he reached Mr Doherty, she thinks that the shooting had stopped. He turned Mr Doherty over.
Ms McGeehan was shown the photographs of Patrick Walsh crawling towards Patrick Doherty. She said that Mr Doherty’s head was pointing in the direction of the alleyway when he stopped moving. In her 1972 statement, Ms McGeehan said that she heard shots as Mr Doherty crawled towards the alleyway; he stopped crawling and went white. The man who had come out of the alleyway had to stay for 15 to 20 minutes. Ms McGeehan said that she recalls the two men having to stay in the open ground for a period of time. She does not recall Patrick Walsh trying to pull Patrick Doherty back in the alleyway with him. Mr Walsh turned Mr Doherty over on his back. She had not been at the window constantly while this was happening.
Ms McGeehan saw a man in a light grey uniform, Captain Leo Day, come from the direction of the lifts at the entrance to Block 1.
10.2
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND WOUNDED
10.2.1
Patrick Doherty
Ms McGeehan was asked about her 1972 statement. In that, she said she had seen Mr Doherty crawl from the direction of the shops at Block 2. He was in a position that was to the right of her window.
10.3
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE SOLDIERS
10.3.1
Rossville Flats car park
Ms McGeehan said that it was difficult to tell where the shots were coming from because of the echo in the courtyard.
10.3.2
South of Block 2
Ms McGeehan said that at the time she saw Mr Doherty shot,
he was in the direction that he can be seen lying in the photographs.
11
DONNA HARKIN’S EVIDENCE (nee Friel)
Mrs Harkin was 15 years old at the time of Bloody Sunday.
11.1
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL
11.1.1
Rossville Flats car park
Mrs Harkin was going to join the march at St Eugene’s cathedral. She ran away when the Army came in and ended up in the car park of the Rossville Flats.
Mrs Harkin could hear APCs and crossed the courtyard towards Blocks 2 and 3 of the Rossville Flats. She saw a lot of people running in the car park. She did not see anyone stop or throw any sort of missile at the soldiers. Mrs Harkin sheltered behind the low wall in front of Block 2 of the Rossville Flats and ran along behind it towards the staircase between Blocks 2 and 3.
Mrs Harkin reached a balcony in Block 2 of the flats. She saw two APCs at the end of Chamberlain Street, one at either end of the street. There were two soldiers, both holding rifles, in front of the APCs. They were standing in the open and not taking cover. Mrs Harkin said that she could not say whether this was later on, rather than when she first went to the balcony. She said that she had been at the balcony at a later stage in the day when she was making her way home.
Mrs Harkin was pulled into a flat. She looked out of a window onto the courtyard and saw Father Daly kneeling with a boy who was on the ground. Mrs Harkin saw a youngish man near to Father Daly. The man moved a few feet north of Father Daly and began to jump. He looked as if he was doing a war dance. The man stumbled and fell down on one knee. Mrs Harkin assumed that he had been shot in the leg.
11.1.2 South of the
Rossville Flats
Mrs Harkin went into the kitchen and looked out of the window which overlooked Joseph Place. The window was immediately above the canopy that runs over the shops.
Mrs Harkin could see a man lying wounded below the kitchen window. He was lying on his stomach with his head facing south towards the alleyway at the east of Joseph Place. He was aged between 30 and 40 years old. She thought that the man was wounded because at some stage, he was being helped by people towards the alley behind Joseph Place.
As Mrs Harkin was looking at the man, she could see a group of 4 or 5 men crawl in a line between the eastern gable of Block 2 towards the alleyway behind Joseph Place.
Most of the group reached the alleyway before the first man she had seen and they helped to pull him behind Joseph Place. She remembers seeing the first man on his own at one point and then seeing him as part of a line with one man behind him and others in front of him. The man behind the first man helped him to safety by pushing his feet. Mrs Harkin said that she now knows this man to be Patrick Doherty. She said that Mr Doherty seemed to be the last of the group and felt that the people in front were actually blocking him from getting to Joseph Place.
After the first man had reached safety, Mrs Harkin’s focus went on to Mr Doherty. Mr Doherty remained lying on his stomach and did not move. All the time, the shooting continued. She believed that the shooting was coming from Glenfada Park area. Mrs Harkin did not believe that Mr Doherty was hurt because she could not see blood but she could not understand the length of time he lay without getting to safety. She saw a bullet strike the bricked area around the trees and dust fly up. She could not be definite whether the bullet hit the bricked area before Patrick Doherty.
After a matter of minutes, Mrs Harkin saw Patrick Doherty lift his knee as though he was going to move towards the alleyway to the east of Joseph Place. She is no longer certain which knee, but originally said that it was his left knee. He was facing the Joseph Place alleyway. As he raised his knee, he moved to a position which brought him onto all fours. She described Mr Doherty’s position as the way a runner bends down to start a race except that he was far lower than that. At that moment, she saw the bullet enter the bottom of his right buttock. Mrs Harkin could see the entry wound. Mr Doherty’s body jerked off the ground and he landed down with a thud. She could see the colour leaving his face and knew that he was dying. Mr Doherty had been calling for help.
Mrs Harkin saw a man trying to reach Mr Doherty. For five minutes he had been unable to because of the shooting that was coming from Glenfada Park North. After the shooting had stopped, the man reached Mr Doherty and turned him on his back. Mrs Harkin has a clear recollection of Patrick Walsh turning Mr Doherty on his back. Mrs Harkin does not remember Mr Walsh leaving Mr Doherty’s side. She said that it is possible that she missed seeing him go out to Mr Doherty more than once because every few seconds she hid behind the window and looked back out again.
11.1.3 1972
statement
Mrs Harkin said that her 1972 account of seeing a man shot in the leg and fall on the southside of the Rossville Flats would be accurate. She said that Mr Doherty was already on his back by the time the First Aid people arrived.
11.2
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND WOUNDED
11.2.1
Soldier R’s evidence
Mrs Harkin was asked about the evidence of Soldier R. Soldier R said that a pistol was fired in is direction from the alleyway between Blocks 2 and 3 of the Rossville Flats. Mrs Harkin said that she did not see a civilian gunman in that position or anywhere else in the Rossville Flats.
11.2.2
Patrick Doherty
Mrs Harkin said that Mr Doherty’s head was facing the alleyway behind Joseph Place. His feet were towards Block 2 of the Rossville Flats. Mr Doherty was in a position that was more straight than an angle but the direction he was trying to crawl was at an angle.
Mrs Harkin said that the image of seeing Patrick Doherty shot sticks in her mind. In her 1972 statement, she had been too embarrassed to say that he had been shot in the buttock so she had said that the shot entered his lower back or hip. She had the clear impression that the shot had come from Glenfada Park and said that a line could be drawn from the position Mr Doherty was in and Glenfada Park.
12
DAVID McINTYRE’S EVIDENCE
Mr McIntyre was 10 years old at the time of Bloody Sunday. He refused to take the oath or affirm before he gave his evidence.
12.1 QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL
12.1.1
Joseph Place
Mr McIntyre saw a man shot who had moved out of the alleyway behind Joseph Place. The man had been looking up towards the walls when he was hit. Another man had gone out to try and help him. Mr McIntyre heard another shot and the man fell.
Mr McIntyre said that the two men he had seen shot were Daniel McGowan and Patrick Doherty. He did not think it was possible that he had seen someone other than Mr Doherty shot.
Mr McIntyre said that he is certain that both people had been shot from the walls.
13
EDWARD KEOGH’S EVIDENCE
13.1
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL
13.1.1
Rossville Flats car park
Mr Keogh cannot recall seeing any civilian in the car park but he remembers seeing about 20 soldiers running into the car park from the direction of the waste ground. The soldiers were pointing their guns and firing. He now has no recollection of seeing an APC crash into a man who was running away from the troops. He now has no recollection of seeing a man hit in the leg or a fleeing man shot in the back.
Mr Keogh was asked about the evidence of William Harley. Mr Keogh said that he did not see a civilian gunman at the gable end of Chamberlain Street.
13.1.2
Southside of Rossville Flats
Mr Keogh was on the south side of Block 2. He heard shots that he thought came from the area of Glenfada Park. He said that he heard single shots and then automatic shots.
When he was inside William Harley’s flat in Block 2 of the Rossville Flats, he saw 15 soldiers positioned near the northeast corner of Glenfada Park South. The soldiers were aiming and firing towards the Fahan Street steps. He does not know how many shots were fired.
Mr Keogh looked down in front of Block 2 and saw a person he now knows to be Patrick Doherty lying flat on his back. The soldiers were firing and people were afraid to go near Mr Doherty.
In his 1972 statement, Mr Keogh did not mention the group of soldiers or seeing Mr Doherty. He thinks that he did mention it when he gave his statement.
14
BRIDGET O’REILLY’S EVIDENCE
Mrs O’Reilly lived in 7 Abbey Park, the house that William McKinney was carried into.
14.1
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL
14.1.1
Abbey Park
Mrs O’Reilly said that when she opened the door to her house, it became packed. She looked out of her kitchen window towards the entrance leading into Glenfada Park North. She saw a man lying on the ground and said that his head moved and he looked up. She learned after Bloody Sunday, that the man was James Wray.
She could see five or six people taking cover by crouching at the western wall of Glenfada Park North. Mrs O’Reilly said that the alleyway leading into Glenfada Park North was empty. She could hear shooting which seemed close by. The next thing that she saw was James Wray’s body jerk. Mrs O’Reilly said that a soldier came into view and she thinks that he shot Mr Wray again. The soldier stepped over Mr Wray and carried on walking. The soldier was small and stocky and was holding his gun at his waist. She did not actually see this soldier aim his gun at Mr Wray.
Mrs O’Reilly said that she was so frightened that she looked away. The shooting stopped for a short time and Mrs O’Reilly looked back and saw two legs on the steps leading up to numbers 9 and 11 Abbey Park.
Mrs O’Reilly said that one young lad who had been sheltering with the people at the wall, jumped over the wall and walked towards the steps with his hands up. She remembers thinking that he was going to be shot. Mrs O’Reilly heard a second shot and saw the soldier move away towards Rossville Street in the direction from which he had come. She thinks that the soldier fired the two shots but did not actually see him fire.
In her 1972 statement, Mrs O’Reilly had written about a girl in a white coat running from the Old Bog Road. The soldier had aimed at her and she had thrown herself to the far end of the Carr’s garden. Mrs O’Reilly had heard a shot.
Mrs O’Reilly said that William McKinney was brought into her house. She does not remember any other bodies being brought in.
14.2
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND WOUNDED
14.2.1
James Wray
Mrs O’Reilly said that she saw Mr Wray lift his head up. She saw his body jerk and his coat move. After that he did not move again.
14.2.2
William O’Reilly’s evidence
Mrs O’Reilly’s husband is too ill to give evidence at the BSI. She was asked about his statement in which he described the soldier as looking ‘doped up’ and ‘like a zombie’. Mrs O’Reilly said that she would not say that the soldier was excited but agreed that he was like a zombie at the end.
15
JOHN DAVIES’ EVIDENCE
15.1
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL
15.1.1
Bernard McGuigan
Mr Davies was on the south side of Block 1 of the Rossville Flats when he heard the crack of live fire. He could hear a girl who was screaming. He did not see any soldiers. Mr Davies said that there was a man crouched down beside him. He thinks that the man panicked because at some stage he said words to the effect of ‘I’m getting out of here.’ Mr Davies told the man to stay where he was. He said that he now knows the man to be Bernard McGuigan. He does not recall anyone else in that area who had been injured or killed. He could not say that Mr McGuigan did anything to indicate that he was going out to help someone.
Mr Davies said that he told Mr McGuigan to stay where he was but he was already up. He has no recollection of Mr McGuigan waving a white handkerchief. Mr Davies said that Mr McGuigan took one or two steps and then collapsed. He agreed that it was possible that Mr McGuigan twisted around to where he fell and landed on his back.
Mr Davies identified himself in photographs of the scene by the telephone box at the south end of Block 1. He does not remember seeing an army vehicle coming down past the rubble barricade.
He did not see a soldier and agreed that there would be a limit to his vision because of the position he was in.
15.1.2
1972 statements
Mr Davies went up to the Creggan on the evening of Bloody Sunday. A man asked him to speak into a microphone. He did not know who the man was and never received a written statement. Mr Davies identified his voice on the Kathleen Keville tapes.
15.2
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILIES AND WOUNDED
15.2.1
Bernard McGuigan
Mr Davies said that when he came through the gap of the Rossville Flats, everyone was down on their hunkers and pressed up against the wall. He cannot see himself on the photograph of the gable end that shows Mr McGuigan standing up.
Mr Mansfield pointed to a soldier who can be seen by the side of the bonnet of an APC on Rossville Street. Mr Davies said that he would not know where the shot that killed Mr McGuigan had been fired from.
16 SEAN McDAID’S EVIDENCE
16.1
QUESTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL