Stormont MP to take stand in Saville Inquiry

Former Stormont MP and peace activist Ivan Cooper will be the 900th witness to appear before the Bloody Sunday Inquiry when he gives evidence on Monday.

Mr Cooper who was portrayed by Ulster actor James Nesbitt in the award-winning film about Bloody Sunday, is expected to be in the witness box for a day and a half.

A Protestant, Mr Cooper was chairman of the Derry Citizens’ Action Committee, which was formed to address concerns about the civil rights of the Catholic population in the city.

The former MP for Mid Derry did not have a major part in organising the anti-internment march in January 1972 but he fully supported it.

He had agreed to be one of the speakers on the platform along with the Westminster MP for Mid Ulster Bernadette Devlin and pacifist former MP for Slough Lord Fenner Brockway.

He is expected to tell the Inquiry that a few days before the march he met four members of the IRA through an intermediary to make it clear that there must be no violence.

In his statement submitted to the Inquiry he recalled seeing one of the 13 victims, Barney McGuigan being shot at Rossville Flats as he went to the aid of another man.

Four more members of the Provisional IRA have also been scheduled to give evidence next week.

The Inquiry is expected to finish taking oral evidence on February 13, more than six years after it was announced by Tony Blair in the House of Commons.

Meanwhile, one of the wounded on Bloody Sunday, Danny McGowan died today after a long illness.

The 70-year-old, who had been too ill to give oral evidence to the Saville Inquiry, was in the Bogside visiting his brother on the day of the march.

He was shot while helping another of the wounded, Patrick Campbell, who has since died.

Lord Saville at the close of today’s proceedings described his death as “sad news”.