McGuinness ‘was IRA second-in-command on Bloody Sunday’

Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness is set to admit publicly for the first time that he was the IRA’s second-in-command in Derry on Bloody Sunday, sources said today.

The Education minister in the Stormont Executive is expected to shortly provide the Saville Inquiry with a detailed account of events as he experienced them on the day paratroopers shot dead 13 people on a civil rights march.

He will make a statement to Saville confirming he was the Derry IRA ‘‘Adjutant’’ at the time of Bloody Sunday.

It will lead to him being called to give evidence to the inquiry which resumes in the Guildhall in Derry tomorrow after its Easter recess.

He will say that armed IRA members were in the Creggan and Brandywell area of Derry during the march on January 30 1972, but that it had been agreed by them in advance the event should be peaceful, it was understood.

He will reject outright as ‘‘rubbish and a lie’’ allegations made during the Bloody Sunday inquiry that he fired the first shot on the fateful day.

According to sources, the Sinn Fein minister will confirm to the inquiry that the IRA was asked to accept that Derry ‘‘should be peaceful to facilitate the march’’.

At a meeting with the Derry IRA Operating Commander, Mr McGuinness expressed support for the proposal and on the day before the march he was ‘‘instructed to inform all volunteers that the IRA would not engage militarily with the British forces to ensure that the civil rights march passed off peacefully,’’ a source said.

Everyone Mr McGuinness spoke to agreed with the proposal, he will say.

An authoritative source said: ‘‘Eight IRA volunteers in two units were armed but were instructed to remain in the Creggan and the Brandywell.

‘‘All other IRA weapons were placed in a closed dump and all other volunteers, other than those in the Brandywell and Creggan, were told they could go to the march or spend the day with their families.’’

Mr McGuinness will tell the inquiry that he stayed with the march from beginning to end.

His statement will be made in the near future at a time to be agreed by the minister, his solicitors and the inquiry.

Mr McGuinness has been under strong pressure from the Saville Inquiry team to make such a statement.

Once he has made the statement he will, like the hundreds of others who have made one, be liable to be called to give evidence in person and face cross-examination by lawyers representing both the families of those who died and the security forces.