McGuinness confirms IRA status on Bloody Sunday
Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness today confirmed publicly for the first time that he was the IRA’s second-in-command in Derry on Bloody Sunday.
Asked at a news conference if he had told the inquiry headed by Lord Saville that he was the IRA’s No 2 in Londonderry on Bloody Sunday, he replied ‘‘yes’’.
He said also that he had told the Bloody Sunday inquiry that ‘‘the IRA did not engage with the British Army on Bloody Sunday.
‘‘In fact I also will tell them there were no IRA units on the march, in the Rossville Flats area. There were no IRA weapons in that area and that no IRA shots were fired at the British Army.’’
Mr McGuinness in his statement to the tribunal said: ‘‘I have given a very full and very frank and very honest account of what I was doing on Bloody Sunday.’’
He declined to give details of what had been in the draft statement sent to the tribunal, but did say he could dismiss as ‘‘rubbish and lie’’ claims from certain quarters that IRA men had been shot on Bloody Sunday and been buried in secret across the border in the Irish Republic.
He said: ‘‘It’s rubbish, a total and absolute nonsense. If that had happened I would have known - the people of Derry would have known.’’
Mr McGuinness said he had decided to give evidence and face questioning at the tribunal being held in the Derry Guildhall because so many other witnesses had already been asked about what he was doing on that day.
He said there was a danger that the tribunal was ‘‘turning into the Martin McGuinness show’’ rather than an investigation into the killing of 14 people by paratroopers.
