Top Ulster Unionist Lord Kilclooney today claimed 13 armed men were shot dead on Bloody Sunday. The former MP's assertion came as he appeared before the Saville Inquiry into the January 1972 atrocity in Derry.
|
The Ulster Unionist peer, formerly known as Mr John Taylor, was giving evidence on his role at the time as a junior minister in the old Northern Ireland government.
Asked by Mr Michael Lavery QC, counsel for most of the families of those killed and injured by British troops in the city, if he believed 13 gunmen had been killed, Mr Taylor replied: "Oh yes, I believe that, yes and still do."
Mr Taylor was a serving junior home affairs minister in the Stormont government at the time of Bloody Sunday when British paratroopers opened fire on an anti-internment march in the city.
He claimed nationalists regarded the shootings as a major propaganda coup in their bid to topple the Northern Ireland parliament.
"Indeed on the night of the deaths, nationalists were drinking and celebrating because of what had happened because they knew it would bring about the downfall of the Stormont Parliament," he said.
Questioned on his claims, the former Ulster Unionist deputy leader said he had received detailed statements from the British army.
It was his belief that all of the victims were shot were shot because they were endangering the lives of security force members.
"I accepted that the army had been shot at and returned fire," he added. "It's very hard after 30 years to remember what happened.
"But there are those who now say innocent people were shot. If that is so it's a tragedy," he said.
PA