Blloody Sunday Inquiry: A man who confirmed that he once held "a very senior position within the Provisional IRA in Ireland", told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry yesterday that he witnessed the death of one of the 13 civilians shot dead by British paratroopers in the Bogside area of Derry on January 30th, 1972.
Known to the inquiry as PIRA 14, he told the tribunal that he and his brother as well as Colm Keenan both of whom were also members of the Provisional IRA, were all in the immediate vicinity of Hugh Gilmore who was shot dead outside the Bogside's Rossville Street flats complex.
Six weeks after the Bloody Sunday killings, Colm Keenan, (18), was shot dead along with another Provisional IRA member, Eugene McGillan, by the army.
The witness said although he was a native of Derry, he was not a member of the IRA locally on Bloody Sunday. He denied that he was in Derry on Bloody Sunday to supervise a planned Provisional IRA operation on the day and said he was "not under the Derry command of the Provisional IRA".
He refused to say if he was attached to the Provisional IRA in Dublin but did confirm that on Bloody Sunday he held a very senior position within the IRA.
He said he and the two other Provisional IRA members with him during the civil rights march were unarmed. As members of the Parachute Regiment moved into the Bogside, the witness said one of the soldiers fired two shots in his direction.
"As he did so a young man standing in front of me, just to my right, clutched his stomach in a spasm. I later learned that this was Hugh Gilmore", he told the 421st day of the inquiry.
"He said something like 'I'm hit' and he turned and ran. As he did so he shouted something, but I couldn't hear. I saw him stumble as he got to the end of block 1 of the flats. There were some people there who pulled him around the corner.
"After a moment I ran after him. When I caught up with him next to a telephone box just around the corner, he was lying on the floor. Someone had pulled up his shirt and I could see blood and entrails coming out of the right side of his stomach. It looked liked an exit wound.
PIRA 14 said he was "extremely unhappy at being required to attend under subpoena and said he was not influenced by any senior or former or existing member of the Provisional IRA to answer questions in a certain way".
The inquiry continues.