Document claimed Hume was Govt 'agent'

A secret document compiled by the RUC Special Branch claimed that former SDLP leader John Hume and three colleagues worked as agents of the Irish Government at the time of Bloody Sunday.

The intelligence paper, which was submitted to the Blood Sunday inquiry, also claimed that then Taoiseach Jack Lynch had promised funds to groups working to overthrow the Stormont government.

The document stated that Mr Lynch had already paid money to the SDLP and mentioned Mr Hume, then a leading member of the party, and colleagues Ivan Cooper, Austin Currie and Paddy O’Hanlon as intelligence officers.

It stated: “It is also worth recalling previous intelligence to the effect that Mr Lynch’s intelligence officers in Northern Ireland are Messrs Cooper, Currie, O’Hanlon and Hume, the latter now having publicly stated that only a united Ireland will satisfy the minority.”

The Special Branch assessment for the period up to February 3, 1972 claimed the shooting of 13 civilians on January 30 in Derry occurred after soldiers were fired on by snipers operating from flats in the Bogside.

It added that prior to a civil rights march in the city, there had been reliable intelligence that the IRA intended to exploit the presence of crowds as cover for their gunmen.

Former Special Branch Detective Chief Inspector Samuel Donnelly, giving evidence to the inquiry today, said he had no memory of intelligence relating to the intentions of either wing of the IRA on Bloody Sunday.

Mr Donnelly said: “I have no recollection of any intelligence or information received from any source about the movements of the IRA or any other organisation before Bloody Sunday.

“Specifically I do not recall what information, if any, Special Branch received about the likely actions of the IRA on the day or the sources of any such information.”