'First shot' dispute dominates inquiry

Mural depicting Bloody Sunday in Londonderry

The dispute over who shot first has dominated the inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday in Londonderry.

The tribunal has been established to investigate the events of 30 January 1972 when British paratroopers opened fire on a civil rights march, killing or mortally wounding 14 people.

Counsel for the inquiry Christopher Clarke QC told the tribunal that military communications on the day did not support allegations that the army had been fired upon first.

Christopher Clarke QC is presenting the evidence gathered so far

He also said that accounts from civilians or journalists covering the event did not support soldiers' claims.

He gave details of the first army shootings on Bloody Sunday in which two people were wounded.

Damien Donaghy, then 15 years old, and John Johnston were both hit by bullets before 4pm when the main shooting incident took place.

Mr Johnston, a draper, died five months later, aged 59.

Some time later, the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment moved into the Bogside on what was listed as an arrest operation in the wake of an illegal civil rights demonstration.

Mr Clarke read extracts from a number of soldiers' statements, claiming that a single high-velocity was fired at them from Rossville Flats before they moved into the Bogside, an area which was then described as a no-go area for security forces.

The soldiers, whose accounts were given both in 1972 and over the past two years since the Inquiry was established, claimed the bullet shattered a rain water pipe above their heads in the grounds of the old Presbyterian Church.

The shot was alleged to have come as members of the Mortar Platoon, 1 Para, were cutting wire of the wall on the side of the church in preparation for moving into the Bogside.

Mr Clarke said: "Despite a substantial amount of military evidence about this shot, there remains a serious question as to whether it was fired, at any rate from the Rossville flats, and, if so, whether it was fired before or after the shooting of Damien Donaghy and John Johnston.

Martin McGuinness: Refutes 'shot' claims

"Two things are to be noted: There is no contemporaneous report of the shot in any of the army logs or the radio transcripts.

"It does not appear in the Brigade log and it does not appear in the log of the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment."

That was in spite of the evidence of one of the soldiers, known as 1094, a corporal who claimed that he reported what had happened on the radio, Mr Clarke added.

"Despite the presence of many people in the area of William Street and Colmcille Court, no evidence from civilians and journalists gives any clear support to the proposition that a shot was fired in the direction of the Presbyterian Church before the shooting of Damien Donaghy and John Johnston."

Mr Clarke referred back to evidence outlined last week suggesting that at least one shot was fired by a member of the Official IRA but that followed the shootings of the two men."

Meanwhile, analysis of an audio tape of the shooting on the day, recorded by BBC journalist David Capper, had been "almost wholly inconclusive", Mr Clarke said.

"It is not possible with any acceptable degree of certainty to relate particular sounds on the tape to particular sounds of weapons as recorded on a(firing) range or elsewhere," he said.

On Thursday, Mr Clarke told the inquiry of a British military intelligence document alleging that Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness fired a shot at the paratroopers which led them to open fire on the civil rights march.

Mr McGuinness, who was reputed to have been an IRA commander in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday, has denied the allegations.

He has described the claims as a "British dirty trick" to "muddy the waters".