McGuinness ‘recoiled in shock at news of shootings’
A man today recalled Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness ‘‘recoiling in shock’’ as he was told of the Army shootings on Bloody Sunday.
Eamonn Deane also told the Saville Inquiry that most people knew Mr McGuinness was a senior member of the Provisional IRA at the time of the Army killings in Londonderry’s Bogside 29 years ago.
He said he encountered the now Mid Ulster MP and Northern Ireland Education Minister and told the hearing: ‘‘I was left with a clear impression that he did not know what was happening in the Bogside at the time when the shooting began.’’
Mr Deane, who was then a 28-year-old schoolteacher, said he had known Mr McGuinness all his life, having grown up in the same neighbourhood.
He met him with other republicans on Westland Street, south of the scene of the deaths, within ‘‘a very few minutes’’ of the troops opening fire both from the north and the city walls in the east.
He stated: ‘‘We were perhaps one of the first groups of people who had come away from the area where the shooting was taking place.
‘‘We could still hear the shooting at this time and Martin McGuinness asked me what was going on. I told him the Brits had come in and were shooting people. I recall Martin McGuinness’s reaction was one of shock and disbelief.’’
Questioned by Gerald Elias QC, acting for some of the soldiers, he added: ‘‘I do remember him recoiling in shock. I may have said something, but I don’t recall it.’’
Earlier Mr Deane told the inquiry of the gunfire which rang out as the then Mid Ulster MP, Bernadette Devlin, started to speak.
‘‘I recall the first part of Bernadette Devlin’s speech when she said something along the lines of, If the Brits want to stop us having a legal meeting, let them try. There are 15 of us to each one of them’.
‘‘Before Bernadette Devlin could go any further, we heard screams and shouts of ’They’re coming in’ and ‘The Paras are coming’ from people further north up Rossville Street.
‘‘People around us were shouting out things like ‘Stand your ground’, ‘Let them come - don’t panic!’
‘‘Suddenly a volley of shots rang out. They were all high velocity and appeared to me to be coming from the William Street end of Rossville Street and also from the city walls to our east.’’
Mr Deane also told the hearing how the events of that day had such a profound effect on him that he became disillusioned with his job as a teacher and instead became a community worker, wanting to do ‘‘something that would give the members of my community more control over their lives and destiny’’.
