McGuinness makes Bloody Sunday Inquiry claim

There would have been no need for a Bloody Sunday Inquiry if the British government had admitted its guilt over the role of paratroopers in the deaths of 14 civilians in Derry, Martin McGuinness said today.

The Sinn Féin MP was responding to claims in a book by Jonathan Powell, a former aide to Tony Blair when he was British prime minister, that he told the British government it could have avoided spending millions of pounds on the most expensive judicial inquiry in British history.

The Mid Ulster MP, who admitted he was a member of the IRA in a draft submission to the inquiry, today remembered the remarks which Mr Powell said were made in a private conversation to him.

“I can clearly recall the conversation alluded to by Jonathan Powell and in fact have publicly referred to it myself on a number of occasions,” he said.

“I told Tony Blair and Jonathan Powell that what was required was for the British government to come out with its hands up and admit the truth of Bloody Sunday.

“In those circumstances there would have been no need for an inquiry.”

Thirteen people were shot dead on the streets of Derry on January 30 1972 by paratroopers during a civil rights march.

A fourteenth person died four months later from injuries sustained during the shootings, which are regarded as a seminal moment in the North's conflict.

An inquiry was set up by Tony Blair in 1998 under the chairmanship of Lord Saville.

It first sat in Derry’s Guildhall in 2000 and took oral evidence from more than 900 witnesses.

In a written reply in the House of Commons in February Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward revealed the tribunal had cost £181.2m (€230m) to date.

Mr Woodward said the tribunal had told him that due to the complexity and volume of evidence it was not possible to say precisely when a final report would be handed over.

“We are informed that the submission of the report is not imminent and that recent media speculation that the report will be concluded in May 2008 has no basis in fact,” he said.