Bloody Sunday justice activists pay tribute to McGuinness role

The Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday would not have happened without Martin McGuinness, the founders of the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign have said.

“He was pivotal,” said John Kelly, whose brother Michael was killed on Bloody Sunday.

“Had it not been for Martin’s persistence over those years during the negotiations with the Blair government there wouldn’t have been an inquiry,” said Tony Doherty, whose father Paddy was also killed.

“Bloody Sunday was a very important event for Martin, as it was for every person who was on the streets of Derry that day.

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“When it came to the negotiations in 1997 Martin was very insistent that he was going to put Bloody Sunday on the agenda, and the issue of truth and justice for the people who were killed and their families and those who were wounded was at the forefront of his thinking when he was dealing with Tony Blair.

“He used to talk to us, tell us what he was going to say, and when he came out from the negotiations he would call either myself or John and tell us that he’s raised it and told the British government that it needed to deal effectively with the issue of Bloody Sunday for the families but also as a confidence-building measure in the peace process.”

Second-in-command of the IRA in the Bogside on Bloody Sunday, Mr McGuinness gave evidence to the Saville inquiry into the events of the day.

In his findings Lord Justice Saville ruled that Mr McGuinness had “probably” been armed with a Thompson sub-machine gun.

“I met Martin and he joked with me about Lord Saville’s finding about the Thompson sub-machine gun and he asked me what I thought of it,” said Mr Doherty.

“I said, ‘after all these years, Martin, they may as well get you for something’, and he laughed. It’s a very sad day.”