The Bloody Sunday inquiry heard today how the British Prime Minister in 1971, Edward Heath, believed the first priority of Northern Ireland policy should be the defeat of gunmen using military means. Details of the British government's view of the mounting violence in the north emerged on the second day of the inquiry into the British army killings of 14 people in Derry 28 years ago.
The Tribunal was told that an RUC officer predicted widespread violence and complete destruction of goodwill if security forces confronted the civil rights demonstration on what became Bloody Sunday. Evidence from the officer, Chief Superintendent Frank Lagan, pressing for the march to proceed unhampered emerged on the second day of the public hearings in Derry's Guildhall into the deaths of 14 men, shot by Paratroopers in the city 28 years ago.
The Inquiry also heard how a British Army commander suggested that the rifles issued to soldiers in Derry in 1972 could be modified to take .22 bullets, instead of the standard 7.26 rounds. The Commander of Land Forces, General Robert Ford said the adapted weapons could be used to shoot the ringleaders of the riots in Derry, and this would reduce the risk that innocent people would be shot. This, he proposed, could be a way of reducing what he called the 'sniper killing zones' on the edge of the Bogside. The plan was rejected by the then RUC Chief Constable Sir Graham Shillington.
