MORE than 500 eyewitness accounts of what happened in the Bogside were written down in the days immediately after Bloody Sunday by the National Council for Civil Liberties, for presentation to the Widgery Tribunal. Widgery considered only 15 of them.

These are edited versions of just a few of the 500.

Father Andrew Dolan (24):

A very peaceful march - a carnival atmosphere even when assembling and going up Westway - no rowdy element present. March progressed to William Street. A number of people were in front of the lorry. They moved on to the army barricade. Lorry moved right with people on board at Rossville Street . . . A couple of stones were thrown but these were soon stopped by fellow marchers ... Like many more I was about to leave the area. The people on the lorry were at Free Derry Corner ... Ivan Cooper was invited to the platform. Miss Devlin [the present Bernadette McAliskey] was now about to address the meeting. Miss Devlin had her first sentence said when a sharp burst of gunfire rang out from the William Street direction.

Sean McDermott, (18)

Apprentice mechanic:

McDermott was standing on the footpath outside Rossville Flats with a friend, Francis Mellon, when he saw Hugh Gilmore shot in the stomach. Mellon and McDermott helped Gilmore off the street.

My friend... is a student nurse. He opened Hugh's jerkin and bared his body. There was a narrow hole on the left side of his body and an exit on the right side from which his innards protruded. My mate pulled off his pullover and used it to try to stop the blood flowing from him. As he placed the pullover into the wound, blood and matter came from the narrow wound. My mate began to give Hugh the kiss of life but blood started to come from the injured man's mouth... All this time the bullets were flying. I looked around then and saw Bernard McGuigan (who was helping us) further out in the Square (towards St Joseph's Place). I saw him put his hands in the air as a gesture of peace and a bullet hit him in the right eye. I think the soldiers were over in Glenfada Park.

Damien Donaghy (15), schoolboy:

Donaghy walked down William Street past the Nook Bar. He turned on to some waste ground and headed in the direction of Columbcille Street. He was the first person to be shot.

I heard the sound of a rubber bullet being fired and I saw it bounce off the wall on my right and I ran to pick it up. As I was bending down to pick it up I heard a shot and I felt a twinge in my right hip. I fell to the ground and I saw the blood coming from a hole in my trousers just above my right knee. At no stage did I have a gun or a nail bomb in my possession.

Peter McLaughlin (17)

Student:

McLaughlin looked out the window of a second floor flat overlooking St Joseph's Street.

An injured person I seen a few minutes later crawl towards St Joseph's Flats from somewhere around the fish shop. He was approximately halfway when shots (two) were fired by a marksman (army) who was beside a Saracen in the entrance to Rossville Flats. The first shot missed, and hit a wall behind the injured man; the second shot hit him in the side.

I seen his clothes burst open and a small amount of blood burst out; this was the only apparent shed of blood. The shot man lifted his head and shouted `Ah! Christ, they shot me again'.

He dragged himself forward a small distance and dropped his head, then lay motionless.

Jean Donoghue (30) Housewife, former nurse:

Because of her medical training, Mrs Donoghue was asked to go and help. She went to Chamberlain Street.

As the stretcher was being carried past a soldier he called to another soldier opposite him: "I've never seen a stiff". To this the other soldier replied: "You'll see plenty today". The other soldier then said: "The more the merrier, 30 the limit".

Mary Harkin (41) Machinist:

When tear gas and coloured dye were fired at the marchers, Harkin retreated into the home of a friend in Rossville Flats. From there, she saw people shot and watched the clean up.

Three boys fell beside a homemade barricade outside the Flats. I heard a man call: "That's my son. He's dead. Get an ambulance." It was Mr Nash. As he raised both hands to show he was unarmed, more shots came from the army and he was wounded.