The Sinn Féin chairman has told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry that the actions of British soldiers on Bloody Sunday in firing on civil rights marchers was like a "turkey shoot". Mitchel McLaughlin is the most senior Sinn Féin figure to date to give evidence to the Saville Inquiry. He denied having any knowledge of members of either the provisional or official IRA on the day of the Bloody Sunday killings.
He told inquiry that a British soldier tried to shoot him in the head on Bloody Sunday. Mr McLaughlin, who was 26 at the time, said that, at one point, he thought his father had been wounded in front of him. He said that he had been involved in a riot at a military barricade against a civil rights protest in the Bogside that day.
He said that, as far as he was concerned, people on the march were there to support the march and for no other purpose. When asked directly if he was aware of the identity of active service volunteers in the Provisional IRA in Derry on 30 January, 1972, Mr McLaughlin replied, "No, none whatsoever".
