IRA men make Bloody Sunday statements
Five men who admitted being members of the Provisional IRA on Bloody Sunday have made statements to the Saville Inquiry, it has emerged.
A spokesman for the tribunal also confirmed a sixth would be made later.
The IRA has been under intense pressure to come forward in a bid to find the full truth of what happened on Bloody Sunday – and this latest revelation has signalled the organisation’s apparent assistance to attempt to establish the facts.
The marathon investigation into the shootings of January 1972 which left 13 people dead is entering the closing stages.
The six IRA men are understood to be Gerard Doherty, Eddie Dobbins, Sean Keenan, Patsy Moore, Gerry O’Hara, a Sinn Féin councillor in Derry, and Michael Clarke, who has intimated he will be submitting a statement later.
O’Hara has admitted he was a member of the junior wing of the IRA at the time of the killings but has denied claims that nail bombs were distributed by Martin McGuinness, who was the Provisionals’ number two in Derry at the time.
The man who made that allegation, Paddy Ward, is due to give evidence next week.
His in-laws, Vera and Daniel McGilloway, have also made statements to the inquiry, it has emerged.
Up until now Mr McGuinness was the only self-confessed IRA man to have come forward with a statement.
He is due to give evidence to the inquiry when it returns to Derry at the end of this month.
All those who have made statements will face intense cross-examination by lawyers on all sides.
The £150m (€216m) inquiry is due to end in December but it will be at least another year before Lord Saville finishes his report.
A spokesman for the tribunal refused to comment on the statements but confirmed “five more have been submitted and we’re expecting a sixth”.
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