Inquiry hears of 'bad day's work'

Mural depicting Bloody Sunday in Londonderry

Bloody Sunday was described as a "bad day's work" by a soldier in Londonderry in the hours after the killings, the Saville Inquiry has heard.

The remark was alleged to have been made by a British soldier who stopped people leaving Derry's Bogside following the killing of 13 men after a civil rights march.

The inquiry is looking into the shootings during a Parachute Regiment operation there, on 30 January 1972.

Giving evidence at the city's Guildhall, retired school teacher Francis Dunne said he was halted along with another man and ordered to stand against a wall with their hands up by members of another regiment, after the paratroopers withdrew.

He said: "While we were standing there a priest came along but I do not know from where. He was very angry and started shouting at the soldiers.

'Humouring priest'

"One of the soldiers said it had been a 'bad day's work, a bad business'.

"He could have been humouring the priest, but I think he was genuine."

Mr Dunne's evidence came on day 90 of public sittings of the inquiry, which was established three years ago with Lord Saville of Newdigate as chairman.

Mr Dunne said he saw one of the wounded, Michael Bridge, shot in the leg in the car park of the Rossville Flats, while shouting at soldiers.

Later that afternoon, he said he watched from a maisonette and saw "at least" three people lying on the rubble barricade across Rossville Street.

He said he saw Alexander Nash, the father of William Nash who died there, fall as he moved out towards his son.

Not armed

"He was keeping low and was probably on his hands and knees," he said.

"However, I saw him put up his hands to show he was not armed. He was about a third to halfway across the rubble barricade when I saw him get down on the ground."

Mr Dunne was also among the witnesses who spotted a "civilian" gunman with a pistol in the Rossville Flats car park, a figure already described by retired Bishop of Derry Dr Edward Daly.

But he denied that troops in the car park were in any danger and said: "The only civilian I saw with any weapons that day was the man I have mentioned in the Rossville Flats car park at the gable end of Chamberlain Street.

"I did not hear or see any nail bombs or petrol bombs. I definitely did not see any acid bombs thrown.

"Apart from the shooting I have described as coming from the soldiers, there was no shooting coming over my head from behind me.

"I would not describe the shooting I heard in the Rossville Flats car park as a gun battle; definitely not. It was not a gun fight at the OK Corral."

'Hero' recalled

Later on Monday, a man who went to the rescue of one of the Bloody Sunday victims despite coming under fire himself was described as "a real hero" who ought to have been decorated for bravery.

Charles McLaughlin paid an emotional tribute to Paddy Walsh, who made a failed attempt to save the life of Patrick Doherty, 31, who was killed.

Mr McLaughlin, who was 47 on Bloody Sunday, also told the hearing that he forbade his son - Mitchel McLaughlin, now Sinn Finn chairman - leaving him and his wife during the march.

Mitchel McLaughlin had wanted to join a friend, Hugh Gilmour - another of those killed that day.

Mr McLaughlin senior was at home in the Rossville Flats and saw Doherty pulling himself along on his stomach and trailing one of his legs behind him.

He said: "I saw a bullet strike and bounce off the pavement between the crawling man and the retaining wall to the south of him.

"Then the man clasped his hand up to his right side and said: I'm shot again."

Casualty was fellow worker

Mr McLaughlin then saw Mr Walsh crawl out from shelter on his hands and knees towards the casualty, waving a white handkerchief.

"He waved his handkerchief and made it over to the wounded man. He lifted the man's head and I suppose discovered that he was dead," he said.

"I learned later that this man's name was Paddy Walsh. He was a real hero and should have been decorated for bravery."

It was only after the shooting subsided and the dead man was carried away beneath his window that Mr McLaughlin recognised him as Mr Doherty, who worked with him in the Du Pont textiles factory.

"He was a man I spoke to almost every day at work and who cared only about his family.

"The way he was killed hit me very hard and broke my heart," Mr McLaughlin said.