Bloody Sunday probe to protect IRA identities

Three former IRA men who have agreed to give evidence to the Bloody Sunday Tribunal were granted anonymity today.

The inquiry panel accepted their applications to have their identities protected on the grounds that their lives could be at risk if they were made public.

A former Provisional, known to the Inquiry as PIRA 18, will give evidence tomorrow, while PIRA 1, who will also be screened from the public gallery, will appear in the witness box on Wednesday.

A former Official IRA man, known as OIRA 8, will be questioned by lawyers on Thursday.

Security arrangements will be put in place to make sure the three are not photographed entering or leaving the Guildhall in Derry, where the inquiry is taking place.

The Bloody Sunday Tribunal, which returned after the Christmas and New Year break, is expected to hear testimony from a further 40 witnesses over the next few weeks.

By the time evidence has finished, the inquiry will have heard from more than 900 witnesses and is expected to have cost more than £155m ( €224m).

First in the witness box today was William Hegarty, who described how a bullet ripped through his coat as he ran in panic from British army fire on Bloody Sunday.

Mr Hegarty, whose brother-in-law Michael Kelly was shot dead as soldiers opened fire during a civil rights march in Derry in January 1972, said he was trying to get away from the shooting when he felt a burning sensation in his left shoulder.

“There was a scorch mark across the very top of my shoulder as if someone had run a poker over it. I believe this was where a bullet had skimmed my shoulder,” he said.

Mr Hegarty was 19 at the time of the march when 13 unarmed civilians were shot dead by members of the Parachute Regiment in the Bogside area of the city.

During the march he saw a man lying wounded after hearing a high velocity shot in William Street.

He later discovered that the man was John Johnston, who died six months after Bloody Sunday.

Later, as he made his way to the rubble barricade in Rossville Street, Mr Hegarty said he saw two or three bodies lying on the ground.

“I am aware that Michael Kelly, my brother-in-law, may have been shot at the rubble barricade. I did not recognise him from where I was standing.

“If I had, I would have immediately run over to see if he needed help.”

A second witness, Conal McFeely, now a well known community worker in the city, described how he went on the march with Gerald Donaghy, whose body was later photographed on Craigavon Bridge with nail bombs sticking out of his pockets.

Mr McFeely, who was 18 at the time, told the inquiry that Mr Donaghy did not carry any devices during the march.

“There was no way that Gerald Donaghy had nail bombs on Bloody Sunday. The only thing that Gerald Donaghy was armed with on Bloody Sunday was his innocence.”

Mr McFeely told the tribunal he became separated from his companions, including his younger brother Denis and Mr Donaghy at the barrier in William Street, where soldiers were preventing marchers from going into the city centre.

After running away from the area to escape from CS gas, he recalled bending down to pick up a stone or bottle to throw at the soldiers.

He told the tribunal he saw a soldier getting out of a Saracen and pointing his rifle at the crowd in the direction of Rossville Flats carpark.

“I did not see the soldier shoot but I assumed that he and the others I had seen on the waste ground were shooting because I heard the sound of two or three live rounds.”

As he ran to a low wall in the carpark, he said he saw a youth stumble, clutching his shoulder.

“I did not know whether the youth, who was about 5’7” tall and had dark hair, had been shot or had simply tripped. I did not turn round to look even though I heard people shouting ‘He’s shot’.”

He said he believed the youth was Jackie Duddy, one of the 13 killed on Bloody Sunday.

The final witness Manus McDaid, who was on the march with his wife, told the inquiry he saw a soldier striking an old man with the butt of his rifle in Chamberlain Street.

“I instinctively started to run over to the old man, intending to remonstrate with the soldier and hit him if he would not stop striking the old man.”

From a later vantage point in a first floor flat, he said he saw a soldier fire six or seven aimed shots at the rubble barricade.

“At no time did I see this soldier take any defensive position or squat down, nor did I notice any soldiers covering him.”