McGuinness 'told IRA not to attack troops'

Martin McGuinness ordered IRA men not to attack British troops during the civil rights march that led to Bloody Sunday, he claimed today.

The Sinn Féin leader, who was the Provisionals’ number two at the time of the shootings, told the Saville Inquiry his commanding officer had instructed him to tell every volunteer not to open fire.

He said: “I spoke with the command staff and all active service volunteers. I relayed the decision taken by the OC (officer commanding).

“Without exception everyone I spoke to accepted that our approach to the march was sensible.”

Mr McGuinness denied accusations that he fired the first shot on Bloody Sunday when 13 unarmed civilians were killed by paratroopers.

Former IRA member Paddy Ward has also alleged that the Sinn Féin chief supplied detonators for 16 nail bombs for a planned attack on troops after the march.

But Mr McGuinness dismissed Mr Ward’s claims as a “tissue of lies”.

He added: “Mr Ward is a fantasist, Mr Ward is a liar, Mr Ward is an informer.

“I did not know Mr Ward. I never met Mr Ward.”

Questioned by counsel to the inquiry Christopher Clarke QC, Mr McGuinness refused to reveal when he became the commanding officer of the Derry Brigade.

“The reason I won’t answer it is because it is not relevant to Bloody Sunday and that question opens up a whole other debate which has significance for the peace process,” he said.

He also refused to reveal who the IRA chief in the city was at the time of the shootings but confirmed he was still living.

Despite being pressed by Mr Clarke about the paramilitary organisation’s officers in 1972, he would not name anyone but revealed: “I would say 75% of those are still alive.”

Mr McGuinness hit out at the line of questioning and claimed the inquiry was straying away from its remit of finding out what happened on Bloody Sunday.

Tribunal chairman Lord Saville has demanded that the Provisionals come forward to give their version of what happened on Bloody Sunday.

Asked if he had encouraged former IRA members to testify before the tribunal, Mr McGuinness said: “I haven’t sought any of them out, some have come to me.

“I made it very clear that I was going to the tribunal, that I was going to give my testimony and that I was encouraging both privately and publicly anyone who can contribute to the uncovering the truth about what happened.”

“I told anyone who came to me that they should make their own decision but I was not in any way going to put pressure on people to take a course of action which in my view could only be decided by themselves.”

Around six other Provisional IRA members have given statements to the inquiry and are expected to give evidence before Christmas.

Mr McGuinness said when he became aware of the shootings of civilians on Bloody Sunday, his first instinct was that he should get a weapon.

“Whenever it came clear to me that people were being shot in the Glenfada Park area, I emotionally felt that I should go and get a rifle and try to defend, as best as I possibly could, the people of the Free Derry area.

“But, of course, I didn’t do that, I had a period of reflection and I think came to a mature decision that it would have been a mistake.”

Mr Clarke asked if the IRA had been engaged in a campaign of destruction of business properties to put pressure on the Army to withdraw from the city.

The Sinn Féin chief replied: “It’s true that there was a war situation. The primary purpose of the IRA was to take on the British Army and those military forces supporting them.

“There was a strategy to attack business premises in order to stretch the army and gain maximum advantage over what were superior, numerically that is, forces.”