Former IRA member to give evidence

The most senior former IRA man to give evidence to the Bloody Sunday inquiry in Derry will step into the witness box later this morning.

Raymond McCartney, a former long-serving republican prisoner and hunger striker, was a teenager at the time of the Bloody Sunday killings.

He was in his mid-teens when the Catholic community in Derry was devastated by the killing of 13 men on Bloody Sunday.

He later joined the IRA, going on to serve a life sentence during which he nearly died on hunger strike.

Although his testimony today is expected to be of little evidential value, he is likely to be asked to tell what he knows about the IRA membership in Derry at the time.

If he is asked to name names and give details of people he knew or suspected were in the IRA in 1972, such as Martin McGuinness, it is thought Mr McCartney will refuse to answer.

Sources close to the Bloody Sunday families say they expect what they call a "fishing expedition" today when he gives evidence in the Guildhall.