Day 426: The officer commanding the Provisional IRA in Derry 32 years ago said yesterday he was "absolutely confident" no members disobeyed his order that no action was to be taken against British soldiers on the afternoon of the Bloody Sunday killings.
Known as Provisional IRA 24, the witness also said he had appointed Sinn Féin MP Martin McGuinness as his second-in-command; and that, following his recommendation, Mr McGuinness succeeded him as OC six weeks after Bloody Sunday.
The witness, who is the last to give evidence to the inquiry into the killings by British paratroopers of 13 unarmed civilians on January 30th, 1972, and whose evidence continues today, said Mr McGuinness and the then quartermaster moved IRA weapons into the Bogside, the scene of the killings, the night before Bloody Sunday, but this was done because the arms dump in the Creggan had been sealed by the local OC.
Provisional IRA 24 said the organisation's arsenal comprised two M1 carbines, two Thompson machineguns, seven Lee Enfield rifles, six pistols and four Garand rifles, as well as about 50lb of commercial explosives. In additional to that, he had his own "reserve dump" in Co Donegal which contained 19 weapons.
He told the inquiry he had received intelligence reports that the paratroopers would be on duty in Derry on Bloody Sunday.
"We used to gain a lot of intelligence from people doing ordinary day jobs, who would see extra military activity and let us know what was going on. People gave us the intelligence which traditionally they would have given to the RUC. The people were then more loyal to us than \ the police."
The witness said the IRA "inner circle" discussed the planned civil rights march days before it took place, and the consensus was that the IRA would do nothing. "Because orders were put out on the day that there was to be no activity, I am absolutely confident that there was none," the witness said.
"It was absolute, and discipline was good."
He told the inquiry he did not attend the march, but that minutes after the shootings he was informed by his quartermaster that "there had been murder and that people were being shot". He then met other IRA members, among them Mr McGuinness, and decided there should be no immediate retaliation.
"It would have been crazy to think of taking on the army. Whereas people were angry and in shock, there was agreement to this course of action. There was to be no action taken until after the funerals. Volunteers were sent out to tell people. I was convinced that after the initial shock had subsided, no one would want any more shooting," he said.
However, he said that, in the presence of Mr McGuinness, he ordered a "symbolical shooting" against soldiers on the city walls overlooking the Bogside.
"At the time people wanted to get hold of guns in order to retaliate, and I thought that if they heard guns this would quieten them down as they would think the IRA was still there and operational," he said.
The witness said a claim by former SDLP MP, Mr Ivan Cooper, that the organisers of the civil rights march had been "given an assurance by the Provisional IRA" was untrue.
The inquiry continues.