Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness has described claims about him at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry as a 'pathetic fabrication'. In a statement, he said the evidence was an attempt by the British military to divert attention from the fact that they killed 14 innocent civilians on that day. The Inquiry heard that Mr McGuinness was reputed to be the commander of the Provisional IRA in Derry in 1972 when Bloody Sunday happened.
Counsel for the inquiry, Christopher Clarke read out extracts from British security service documents which claimed that Mr McGuinness had fired a first shot which precipitated the whole Bloody Sunday episode. Mr Clarke said that if this was false then it was desirable that Mr McGuinness come forward to the Tribunal and say so. Mr McGuinness has so far failed to co-operate with the tribunal, but a Sinn Fein spokeswoman said today that Mr McGuinness would give evidence to the tribunal if asked.
Counsel for the Tribunal quoted from eyewitness accounts which referred to Martin McGuinness' presence in the Bogside on January 30 1972, after the British army had opened fire. People said he appeared shocked and disbelieving; he did not appear to know what had happened. But a British security document from 1984 says Mr McGuinness admitted to an informer that he had fired a first shot from the Rossville Street flats. Another security report says that they have no information to back up the informer's claim other than intelligence that he was involved in IRA activity in the vicinity. None of the eyewitness accounts so far quoted at the inquiry refer to any civilian firing from those flats.
