A senior British army officer may have been mistaken when he said that former SDLP leader Mr John Hume informed him about terrorist activity in the Bogside, the Bloody Sunday inquiry heard yesterday.
Lord Saville, the inquiry chairman, said a telephone call from the retired Bishop of Derry, Dr Edward Daly, had thrown doubt over the claims made by Col Roy Jackson, the commanding officer of one of Northern Ireland's resident battalions on Bloody Sunday.
On Wednesday Col Jackson, then the commander of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment, said Mr Hume and a priest had approached him with information about "arms or explosives or something" in August 1971. Lord Saville yesterday said the inquiry "suspects" the incident Col Jackson was referring to was when Dr Daly, and Mr Ivan Cooper, then a Stormont MP, told the authorities of an unexploded bomb in a playground. The well-known incident is recalled in Dr Daly's book Mr Are You A Priest, the inquiry was told.
Col Jackson thought Mr Hume, had told him about the find because it was the night Mr Hume had been arrested at a protest against special powers legislation. Mr Cooper was arrested at the same protest.
The IRA were reluctant to defuse the bomb because they believed the army were staking out the area. Lord Saville told the inquiry: "These two [Mr Cooper and Dr Daly] went to the police and offered to defuse the bomb, which they later did. Bishop Daly has kindly confirmed that account to the solicitor to the tribunal in a telephone conversation."
Lord Saville said the inquiry would be taking steps to see whether "as we suspect may be the case" that Col Jackson may have been mistaken about Mr Hume's presence at this meeting. Mr Hume described Col Jackson's allegations as "absolute nonsense.
The Nobel Prize winner, who is in the US on a lecture tour, said he would not have known the whereabouts of any arms dumps.
Meanwhile, a paratrooper yesterday told the inquiry he could have been mistaken about hearing 15 to 20 shots being fired at paratroopers before they entered the Bogside on Bloody Sunday.
The anonymous paratrooper, identified only as Lance Corporal 366, was driver for Col Derek Wilford, the commander of 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment on January 30th, 1972.
He initially told the inquiry that he heard shots being fired at them before they entered the Bogside. The hearing was adjourned until Monday. - (PA)