Bloody Sunday inquiry resumes today

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry resumes today at the Guildhall in Derry.

The inquiry gathers for the first time since a ruling was made obliging British

soldiers to return to the city to serve as witnesses.

Army witnesses had wanted to avoid giving evidence into the January 1972

deaths, fearful that their lives would be put at risk from Republicans.

Chairman of the inquiry, Lord Saville ruled that there was ‘no compelling

reason’ why the soldiers should not return to give evidence in the city

where 270 other witnesses have so far testified.

The inquiry resumes today and will sit four days a week until December

13 - however there will be a mid term recess between October 18 and 29.

The inquiry, which has so far cost an estimated £45m and has sat for 133

days, will focus on the deaths of five of the 13 people shot dead when it

resumes at the Guildhall today after the summer break.

The judges will hear evidence on the deaths of Michael Kelly, John Young,

William Nash, Hugh Gilmore and Kevin McElhinney at a barricade in

Rossville Street on January 30 1972.

The five men were killed in the third of five sectors being examined by

the inquiry.

Evidence on the fourth sector in Glenfada Park and Abbey Park is expected

to begin some time in early to mid October.

The inquiry will be missing reserve judge, Mr Justice William Esson from

Canada who resigned last month on health grounds.

Mr Justice Esson, who was appointed last year, has not been replaced.

It is not known when Sinn Fein minister Martin McGuinness will give

evidence to the inquiry since admitting in a statement earlier this year

that he was the second most senior IRA figure in the city on the day when

the shootings occurred.

Former MP Bernadette McAliskey, journalist and civil rights activist

Eamonn McCann and Sinn Fein national chairman Mitchel McLaughlin have

appeared in the witness box.