Hume 'told army of terror activity'

Nobel Peace Prize winner and former SDLP leader John Hume told the British army about terrorist activity in the Bogside before Bloody Sunday, it was claimed today.

Mr Hume passed on the information to Colonel Roy Jackson, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment, one of Northern Ireland’s resident battalions, in August 1971.

Col Jackson told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry that Mr Hume and a priest approached him on the evening that Mr Hume was arrested at a protest against special powers legislation.

Col Jackson told the inquiry, sitting in central London: “He gave me some information.”

Mr Hume, then the Stormont MP for Foyle, directed him towards a place where arms and explosives could possibly be found, saying it was “something of interest to me“.

Col Jackson said: “Yes, it was in the evening of that day and Mr Hume appeared and asked for me with the reverend gentleman ... they, together, suggested that I go and look in a certain place in the Bogside where they may be some arms, explosives or something.”

Cathryn McGahey, for the inquiry, interrupted the questioning by Gerard Elias QC, representing many of the soldiers.

She said: “It may be there are very good reasons for my learned friend not to pursue this further at the moment.”

Lord Saville, the inquiry chairman, agreed, saying it may raise security issues.

He said: “We have to be very careful about these matters for security and similar reasons.

“We will have to make a decision as to whether or not to pursue the matter and if so we will do it in a manner that does not prejudice anybody’s rights.”

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry is investigating the circumstances surrounding the killing of 13 Catholic men by British Paratroopers on a Derry civil rights march on January 30, 1972.