An Irish Timesphotographer who captured some of the Bloody Sunday victims on film moments before they were killed recalled his disbelief today as he saw the unarmed young men shot down.
Mr Ciaran Donnelly, then a staff photographer with paper, described the shootings at the rubble barricade across Derry's Rossville Street, where six of the 13 men killed were hit.
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He also gave the Bloody Sunday Inquiry another account of a possible IRA gunman firing a shot inside the city's Bogside before paratroopers came into the district.
The inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, was shown photographs taken by Mr Donnelly of the scene about 15 minutes later on Rossville Street, showing Mr Michael McDaid (20) and others standing behind the barricade, watching paratroopers advancing towards them.
There was also a picture taken some minutes later of a victim - probably Mr Michael Kelly (17) - being carried away from the barricade across Glenfada Park North. Both Mr Kelly and Mr McDaid were among the dead.
But giving evidence in the Guildhall, Derry, he said only a small proportion of up to 216 pictures taken on Bloody Sunday survived because of a flood which damaged the Irish Times photographic library.
Mr Donnelly took pictures on Rossville Street from behind civilians, and the troops further back. "Whilst I did see some youths at the rubble barricade throwing stones at the army, at no stage did I ever see any weapons fired at the army or any petrol or nail bombs thrown," he said.
Later, Mr Arthur Harvey QC, representing most of the relatives, said soldiers' descriptions suggested there were at least three riflemen, at least three people with blast bombs, one person with a sub-machine gun and three people with pistols.
Asked if he saw any of those weapons, Mr Donnelly replied: "If I had seen any guns or heard blast bombs going off, I would have left the area immediately."
He said two shots which rang out while eight to ten youths were on top of the barricade were initially dismissed as blanks and he saw one youth with "his arms in the air and taunting the army."
"About two to three minutes after I heard the first two live rounds I saw the youth on the left of the barricade fall to the ground. People immediately ran to help him. My reaction was that I could not believe the army were firing live rounds. I think I saw another guy fall on the other side of the barricade and thought ‘I'm getting out of here'."
He retreated into Glenfada Park North - scene later of more killings - and told how there was a "surge" of people across the quadrangle there away from the shooting.
He said he then heard another burst of automatic gunfire which may have been either the big gun on top of the British Army Ferret scout car on Rossville Street or a Thompson sub-machine gun - a weapon known to have been available to the IRA at that time.
Earlier Mr Donnelly told the inquiry that a gunman fired a shot from a handgun about 15 minutes before the troops came into the Bogside - when a no-go area for British security forces.
The gunman was admonished by an angry crowd during the episode, a description similar to one given by two other witnesses - although they claimed to have seen a rifleman confronted in a spot about 100 yards away.
The inquiry continues this afternoon.
- The former Bishop of Derry, Dr Edward Daly, is scheduled to give evidence to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry on Tuesday February 6th.
Sinn Fein chairman Mitchel McLaughlin says he has been told to appear on February 14th.
Dates are liable to change according to how the tribunal progresses with other witnesses.
PA