McGuinness rejects book's IRA claims

Martin McGuinness admitted he was senior IRA man

A journalist may be called to give evidence at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry in Londonderry about claims he has made about Martin McGuinness's IRA role.

The inquiry confirmed on Monday that it is investigating the allegations in a new book by Sunday Times journalist Liam Clarke and Kathryn Johnston that Martin McGuinness and others were involved in IRA activity on Bloody Sunday.

Inquiry chairman Lord Saville of Newidgate said his "eyebrows rose slightly" when he read an article about the book, Martin McGuinness: From Guns to Government, in the weekend edition of the Sunday Times.

Mr McGuinness, who is education minister in the Northern Ireland Executive, described the allegations in Mr Clarke's book as "nonsense".

Admissions

In May he admitted at a news conference that he was the IRA's second-in-command in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday.

He has agreed to give evidence to the tribunal, sitting at the Guildhall in Derry, which is investigating the circumstances of the shooting dead of 13 civilians at a civil rights march in the city by British paratroopers. Another man died later.

However, Mr McGuinness has denied claims that he fired the first shot on Bloody Sunday and has said the IRA was not active on that day.

The paratroopers have always maintained that they were fired on by the IRA before they shot at civilians. IRA and other witnesses have denied this.