John Hume gives evidence to Bloody Sunday inquiry

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate John Hume spoke today of his dread for the march which turned into Bloody Sunday after a confrontation with troops a week earlier.

Foyle MP Mr Hume said he stayed away from the anti-internment march of January 30 1972 - which ended with 13 people shot dead - after Paratroopers opened fire with CS gas and rubber bullets during another civil rights meeting at Magilligan Strand, Co Derry, seven days before.

Giving evidence to the Saville Inquiry, re-examining the killings, he said: ‘‘If they were firing rubber bullets and gas on a beach where there could not be any form of violence ... I thought, ‘Good Lord, what would they do on the streets of a town and what trouble would they cause’.’’

Mr Hume also said he was told by an officer in charge of the troops at Magilligan that they had been ordered there by ‘‘your Government’’ which he took to mean the old Unionist-dominated Stormont regime - again contributing towards his fears.

The founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party also told the tribunal of three judges, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate: ‘‘What is very important to remember about this ... the issue of why the Army was on the streets, the reason why people were having to march was because the injustice of that Northern Ireland was dreadful - and this city was the worst example of that.’’

While he did not attend the ‘‘Bloody Sunday’’ march in Derry that day, Mr Hume spent the evening afterwards trying to liaise with families of the dead and injured, which he described as a ‘‘shattering’’ experience.

He added: ‘‘That day was dreadful, the worst day in the history of this city in my lifetime.’’