'IRA did not open fire on Bloody Sunday'

A former IRA man convicted of bombing Derry’s town hall returned to the same building today to give evidence about his activities on Bloody Sunday.

Gerry “Mad Dog” Doherty, who was jailed for 15 years for a number of terrorist offences including a bomb attack on the Guildhall in June 1972, told the Saville Inquiry that the Provisionals did not fire on the day that 13 unarmed civilians were shot dead by members of the Parachute Regiment.

The ex-paramilitary, who was a 17-year-old IRA volunteer in the Bogside at the time of Bloody Sunday, said that orders were given by his section leader not to take action during the civil rights march in January 1972.

“It was made clear that we were not to do anything and that meant no engagements. It followed that there would be no access to weapons or explosives,” he told the inquiry.

He insisted that orders were followed and the Provos were not involved in any attacks on the security forces: “There was no activity planned by the Provisional IRA for Bloody Sunday. Neither was there any activity that day.”

Asked by counsel to the inquiry Christopher Clarke QC about his terrorist convictions, he confirmed he was jailed for 15 years for a bomb attack in December 1971, for attempting to murder a soldier in April 1972 and bombing the Guildhall in June 1972.

Mr Doherty, who was elected to Derry City Council after being released from prison, told the inquiry that, while taking part in the march, he saw an Official IRA gunman opening fire on the Army in the Chamberlain Street area of the Bogside on Bloody Sunday.

“He was edging his way along the wall at the other side of the mouth to Chamberlain Street in the direction of the soldier. He took a short arm from his pocket and fired two or three rounds straight ahead of him.

“Having fired his two or three rounds he then moved back up the wall in my direction and the people who were around were scuffling with him,” he added.

Mr Doherty, who was giving evidence on the 400th day of the inquiry, denied claims by former IRA man Paddy Ward that the IRA’s youth wing, the Fianna, planned a nail bomb attack on Guildhall Square on Bloody Sunday.

He said: “The Fianna had no access to explosives or weapons for use in military operations. It simply wouldn’t happen.”

In a further development, the extended families of those killed on Bloody Sunday are still suffering significant psychological distress, a new study revealed today.

University of Ulster researchers found that as the Saville Inquiry, media coverage and films recreated the events in Derry on January 1972, relatives of the 14 men killed were still suffering the consequences.

The university’s School of Psychology also discovered that some of the families’ distress was comparable to that of firefighters or South African policemen who had witnessed violence.