Witness claims campaign to discredit him

A former IRA man who claimed Martin McGuinness was involved in supplying detonators for nail bombs on Bloody Sunday today accused republicans of mounting a campaign to discredit him.

Paddy Ward, who claimed he was the leader of the Fianna - the youth wing of the IRA - in January 1972, said his men intended to attack city centre premises in Derry on the day 13 civilians were shot dead by soldiers.

He said Mr McGuinness, the second in command of the IRA in the city at the time, and another provisional, gave him the bomb parts on the morning of the civil rights march.

Mr McGuinness has dismissed the claims as “fantasy”, while Gerry O’Hara, a Sinn Féin councillor in Derry, has claimed that he was the leader of the Fianna at the time.

Mr Ward, who was screened from public view as he gave evidence, said he distributed 16 nail bombs on Bloody Sunday.

He said he gave two nail bombs to 17-year-old Gerard Donaghy several hours before he was shot dead.

Mr Ward told the Saville Inquiry in London that former IRA members had launched a concerted effort to discredit him in recent weeks.

Christopher Clarke QC, senior counsel to the Inquiry, said that since Mr Ward came forward, eight separate statements had been received which contradicted his account.

Until earlier this month, Mr McGuinness was the only self-confessed IRA man to have come forward to the inquiry.

But three others who have admitted being members of the Provisionals on Bloody Sunday have also now made statements, with a fourth expected later.

The four IRA men are Gerard Doherty, Eddie Dobbins, Sean Keenan, and Michael Clarke, who has said he will submit a statement later.

Fianna members Patsy Moore and Gerry O’Hara, a current Sinn Féin councillor in the city, have also submitted statements.

Mr O’Hara, a former northern chairperson of the party, has claimed he was the leader of the Fianna on Bloody Sunday, directly contradicting Mr Ward’s version of events.

The Sinn Féin councillor said he was given an order that no action was to be taken against the security forces and that order was followed.

The inquiry has also received statements from the mother and father of Mr Ward’s first wife.

Mr Clarke said: “Those eight statements contradict in whole or in part the evidence that Mr Ward is to give.”

Mr Ward told the inquiry the former IRA men who had made the statements may have been coerced or coaxed in a bid to discredit his evidence.

“It seems to me it is a concerted effort to discredit my character,” he said.

“I see the same pattern through all the witness statements that I have read so they have obviously been either coerced or coaxed or all pulled into line to make the same accusations to discredit my evidence to the inquiry.”

Mr Ward, who was 16-years-old at the time of Bloody Sunday, said it was agreed with Mr McGuinness that a nail bomb attack would be carried out in Guildhall Square in the city.

He said he gave two nail bombs to each of eight Fianna members, including Gerald Donaghy who was later shot dead.

But the attack was aborted when he realised there was no chance of getting into the square. He said all the nail bombs were brought back except those given to Mr Donaghy.

The 17-year-old was later photographed with four nail bombs in his pockets when his body was brought to a British army post at Craigavon Bridge.

A number of civilians have given evidence to the inquiry denying that Mr Donaghy had nail bombs in his possession when he was shot.

The inquiry heard Mr Ward had been convicted of possession of a firearm and ammunition in suspicious circumstances, conspiracy to convey weapons unlawfully and of lending a vehicle for the purpose of terrorism in Belfast in 1982.

Mr Ward was also sentenced to three years in prison at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin in 1984 on a charge of false imprisonment.

The Saville Inquiry is investigating the events of January 30, 1972 when 13 civil rights marchers were shot dead by soldiers in Derry’s Bogside area. A 14th man died later.