A convicted IRA bomber who returned to give evidence in the building he blew up more than 30 years ago, denied tonight that the Provisionals fired on soldiers on Bloody Sunday.
Gerry "Mad Dog" Doherty, who was jailed for bombing Derry's Guildhall, told the Saville Inquiry that PIRA members had been ordered not to take action on the day that 13 unarmed civilians were shot dead by members of the Parachute Regiment.
The ex-paramilitary, who was a teenage volunteer in the Bogside in January 1972, said: "It was made clear that we were not to do anything and that meant no engagements. It followed that there would be no access to weapons or explosives," he said.
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He insisted orders were followed and the PIRA were not involved in any attacks on the security forces: "There was no activity planned by the Provisional IRA for Bloody Sunday. Neither was there any activity that day."
However, Mr Edwin Glasgow QC, representing most of the paratroopers, pointed out that he had misled the Inquiry when he made his first statement to it in 1999.
In this statement Mr Doherty did not mention that he was a member of the PIRA nor that he witnessed an Official IRA gunman firing at soldiers on Bloody Sunday.
"Just as you had lied about 'Father Daly's gunman' as we now call him, you would also have lied about any other gunman at that time; would you not?" asked Mr Glasgow.
Mr Doherty insisted he was not lying: "He was the only gunman that I seen on the day apart from the British Army."
He added he had not mentioned the gunman because it would have detracted from what had really happened on Bloody Sunday.
"The fact remains that when Father Daly's gunman fired his two or three shots, either aimed or unaimed, at this stage there were a considerable number of people shot and killed by the British Army.
Mr Doherty was elected to Derry City Council after being released from prison, having served a total of 15 years for a bomb attack in December 1971, for attempting to murder a soldier in April 1972 and bombing the Guildhall in June 1972.
Giving evidence on the 400th day of the Inquiry, he denied claims given in evidence by former IRA man Mr Paddy Ward that the IRA's youth wing, the Fianna, planned a nail bomb attack on the Guildhall on Bloody Sunday.
"A nail bomb is an anti-personnel device designed to be thrown at soldiers on foot. To throw a nail bomb into this building would be ludicrous. It would take considerably more than a nail bomb to try and blow this building up," added Mr Doherty.
Following the lead of Sinn Féin's Mr Martin McGuinness and other members of both the Provisional and Official IRA who have given evidence, he refused to disclose the names of his former comrades on Bloody Sunday.
He told the Inquiry: "I am not prepared to name members of the IRA, nor am I prepared to name people who assisted or helped the IRA in any shape, form or fashion and that includes the use of houses, safe houses or dumps."
Inquiry chairman Lord Saville warned they may have to press him on his refusal to provide names.
"I would like you to think very carefully about it and, as I think one of the counsel mentioned, it is possible for you simply to give the names and information privately to the Tribunal." he added.
PA