Witness saw Provos arguing with Official IRA men in the Bogside

A witness described watching an argument between Official and Provisional IRA men in the Bogside after the shooting had ended…

A witness described watching an argument between Official and Provisional IRA men in the Bogside after the shooting had ended on Bloody Sunday.

Another said he met Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein in a group of republicans some distance from the scene of the shootings, and Mr McGuinness "recoiled in shock" when told what was happening.

Mr Peter McGriskin told the inquiry that he lay on the ground while the shooting continued. During a lull, he ran behind some houses and waited for half an hour or so until he was sure the shooting had stopped.

As he walked away he saw two cars arrive and park in Fahan Street West. "In each of the cars were three or four men who I would say were `Stickies', that is, members of the Official IRA," he said. "They got out . . . and I watched them taking guns out from inside and from the boot of the front car."

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While these men were doing that, another group of three or four men, "whom I would say were Provos", approached them. They seemed to have an argument with the "Stickies" and the result was that the `Stickies' got back into their cars with their guns. The witness said he could not hear what was said, and he did not recognise the men.

Mr Eamonn Deane, who was a schoolteacher in Derry at the time, said he and his wife were listening to the beginning of Bernadette Devlin's speech at Free Derry Corner when there were screams and shouts of "the paras are coming".

People were panicking, and suddenly a volley of shots rang out.

They were all high-velocity shots and appeared to him to be coming from the William Street end of Rossville Street and also from the city walls. He recalled hearing automatic fire from the northern end of Rossville Street and from the city walls.

Mr Deane said: "We were perhaps one of the first groups of people who had come away from the area where the shooting was taking place. We could still hear shooting at this time and Martin McGuinness asked me what was going on.

"I told him that the Brits had come into the Bogside and were shooting people. I recall Martin McGuinness's reaction was one of shock and disbelief."

Another witness, Mr Michael McLaughlin, said the first shots he heard came as Ms Bernadette Devlin started to speak. He had been in the Territorial Army for two years, and he recognised the loud cracks as firing from British army SLR rifles.

These shots seemed to come from the city walls, but as they rang out he saw a bullet hit the wall directly behind Ms Devlin's head.

That particular shot, he said, could only have come from the Rossville Street area directly behind him.

A brother of Mr William McKinney, one of the 13 civilians shot dead on Bloody Sunday, told the inquiry he could never forgive British statements at the time which suggested that the dead were all bombers or gunmen.

Mr George McKinney said he had met his brother Willie in William Street early on, and when the British army vehicles moved in they both turned and ran along Rossville Street but became separated.

He said that Willie's 27th birthday would have been three days after Bloody Sunday, and he was engaged to be married. He was a very inoffensive person and the only reason he was on the march was to take photos.

"I was very angry at the media statements from the British government about the people who were shot . . . it was very hurtful," said Mr McKinney.

"There have been a lot of deaths as a result of Bloody Sunday, there might be hundreds . . . That is the most hurtful thing, the after-effects. I could live with the 13 dead, but it is the number that have died as a result that I cannot bear thinking of."