McGuinness 'will not identify IRA members'

Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness will not identify former comrades in the IRA when he takes the witness stand in the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

The Mid Ulster MP told the inquiry into the 1972 killings he was ‘‘the adjutant (second in command) of the Derry Command of the IRA’’ on the day of the shootings of 13 Catholics by Paratroopers during a civil rights march.

But the Stormont education minister also told the inquiry: ‘‘I wish to make it clear that I will not provide the inquiry with the identities of our members of the IRA on 30 January, 1972 or confirm the roles played by such persons whose names are written down and shown to me.

‘‘I have been advised by my lawyers that the undertaking given by the Attorney General does not extend to such persons nor am I confident that their identities would be protected.

‘‘As a republican I am simply not prepared to give such information.’’

In the 23-page document to the inquiry presided over by Lord Saville, Mr McGuinness also rejected claims that he fired the first shot that day.

Explaining his role in the republican movement, Mr McGuinness stated: ‘‘The repression, brutality and killings carried out by British State forces in an attempt to crush the civil rights campaign created the political conditions in which I became a member of the Irish Republican Army.’’

‘‘I was only 21 at the time and found myself in a position and role that was not defined.

‘‘In practice the role was to maintain the integrity, discipline and structure of the organisation.

‘‘This was not a conventional army. A lot of the volunteers were younger than me. There were very few older men. We were inexperienced.

Mr McGuinness also denied having ever been the Quartermaster as suggested in a British intelligence paper.

Immunity, covering admissions made by Mr McGuinness as a result of an undertaking by the Attorney General only extended to activities on January 30, 1972 and he was not prepared to comment on other dates, he added.

Referring to the decision not to retaliate in the immediate aftermath of the army’s shootings he stated: ‘‘I am confident that no one disobeyed the decision.

‘‘People were angry, infuriated and emotionally all over the place but the state and organisation of the IRA at the time was such that whatever the volunteers were told to do by someone in charge, they would do it.’’

Mr Guinness said he knew two of the dead - Michael McDaid and Jim Wray - and maintained that ‘‘not one person shot on Bloody Sunday was in the IRA’’.

Mr McGuinness who is expected to appear before the tribunal in spring to give oral evidence, rejected claims by an MI5 agent that he admitted firing the first shot that day.

He said the allegation by the agent codenamed Infliction was ‘‘a concoction, rubbish and a blatant lie’’.

Mr McGuinness admitted taking part in the march from beginning to end but said he and all other IRA men were unarmed.

Mr McGuinness also described his feelings about Bloody Sunday, stating: ‘‘This was the worst day that I have every experienced in my life. It was devastating.’’