McGuinness: IRA snipers did not fire on Bloody Sunday troops

Martin McGuinness was under intense pressure tonight to reveal IRA safe houses used on Bloody Sunday after being heavily criticised for refusing to disclose their locations.

The Sinn Féin chief negotiator resisted all attempts by lawyers at the Saville Inquiry to find out where Provisional guns were stored, claiming he was bound by a republican code of honour.

As the former IRA commander gave testimony into the shootings of 13 unarmed civilians by soldiers during a civil rights march in Derry in January, 1972, he was ordered to contact supporters who gave over their homes to the terror group.

Inquiry chairman Lord Saville told him: “You are depriving us of the opportunity of discovering the full facts and matters relating to the events of Bloody Sunday.

“It will be suggested that the reason you are not answering these questions is that you have something to hide.”

Mr McGuinness refusedl to reveal details about IRA operations at the time.

These included:

:: Where the IRA guns were hidden in the Bogside.

:: Where the paramilitaries met to agree not to attack the Army during the rally.

:: Who was his boss in the IRA.

:: Who was the Derry Brigade’s explosives officer.

:: Which provisional IRA member rowed with Official IRA men who planned a gun attack on troops.

In an impassioned denial on the most dramatic day yet in the marathon £150m (€220m) hearing, Mr McGuinness insisted that the Provisionals had not fired a single shot or thrown any bombs at soldiers on Bloody Sunday.

He claimed IRA snipers could have killed British soldiers if they had wanted to.

McGuinness, who admitted being second-in-command of the IRA in Derry at the time of shootings, added: “That gives the lie to the nonsense that has been peddled down the decades that the British Army were fired on.

“The British Army know they were not fired on by the IRA; their military commanders know they were not fired on by the IRA; their political masters know that the British Army were not fired by the IRA.”

McGuinness agreed to give more details about his IRA past after receiving assurances from Lord Saville about an immunity from prosecution.

He admitted that he was appointed as officer commanding the IRA’s Derry Brigade two weeks after the Bloody Sunday shootings and had briefly been a member of the Official IRA in 1970 before joining the Provisionals.

Under questioning from counsel to the inquiry, Christopher Clarke QC, Mr McGuinness denied allegations that he fired the first shot on Bloody Sunday, supplied component parts for nail bombs to members of the IRA’s youth wing and planned to plant a bomb in a bookmaker’s shop to kill soldiers.

Earlier Mr McGuinness said he ordered IRA men not to attack British troops during the civil rights march.

He 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 was asked about allegations by former IRA man Paddy Ward that he arranged with him to plan a nail bomb attack on the Army.

“I refute it in its totality. It is rubbish. It is nonsense and I think that anyone who sat through Mr Ward’s testimony in London knows that it is a concoction, knows that it is rubbish.”

The account was published in the book “Martin McGuinness: From Guns to Government” written by Sunday Times journalist Liam Clarke and his wife Kathryn Johnston, who both gave evidence last week.

Mr McGuinness accused Mr Ward and Mr Clarke of being “apologists for the murderers who killed the innocent civilians on Bloody Sunday”.

He added: “Mr Ward’s evidence to this Tribunal is a bucketful of lies. He led Clarke up the garden path and Clarke allowed himself to be led up the garden path because Clarke is hostile to me.”

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.”

He denied that his brother William and another leading republican and hunger striker Raymond McCartney had warned IRA members against giving evidence to the Inquiry.

“I have asked my brother and I have asked Raymond McCartney about this and they refute it absolutely and I believe them.”

Mr Clarke QC pointed out that Mr McGuinness had been asked on four occasions in 1999 to provide evidence to the Tribunal but had failed to respond.

Mr McGuinness told the Inquiry: “I recognised that that would have serious implications for me. It would have been a huge decision to take.

“I also believed that it had implications for my political party but maybe more importantly could have huge implications for the peace process,” he added.