SDLP leaders were split down the middle on whether the civil rights march planned for Derry on January 30th, 1972, should go ahead or not, the inquiry heard.
Mr Clarke read portion of a statement which has been supplied to the inquiry by Mr Ivan Cooper, then an MP. In it Mr Cooper states that there was much debate in his political group as to whether the march should be supported. The march was discussed by the six MPs who constituted the SDLP group. He said the breakdown of views was as follows: in favour of the march, Ivan Cooper, Paddy Devlin and Paddy O'Hanlon. John Hume and Gerry Fitt were opposed to the march, and Austin Currie assumed a neutral role.
Mr Cooper's statement also describes the violence used by the Parachute Regiment against an anti-internment protest march to Magilligan internment camp in Co Derry the weekend before Bloody Sunday.
"The paras at Magilligan engaged themselves in confrontations with the marchers, readily using batons to thrash the marchers with impunity . . . [they] had none of the reservations which other regiments of the military had had in the past."