The heroism of a man who crawled out under intense rifle fire to help a dying victim on Bloody Sunday was publicly acknowledged at the inquiry yesterday.
The image of Mr Paddy Walsh approaching the prone body of Mr Paddy Doherty, captured by a French photographer, is among the most dramatic pictures that emerged from the shootings on January 30th, 1972.
Mr Walsh, who was 38 years old and a father of five children, described in evidence yesterday the incident which took place in the shadow of Rossville Flats and which was observed with fear and horror by people looking down from windows.
He said he crept out, crouched low, to see if there was anything he could do for Mr Doherty, who was lying in the open.
He reached the body and began to search for identification but found nothing. "I searched every pocket," he said. "I was thinking to myself why has he been shot? It could have been me. I lifted his head to say a prayer to him . . . I heard the whoosh of bullets going over my head, but I did not realise they were bullets at the time."
He also recalled bullets hitting the ground nearby.
Mr Walsh, who had helped another wounded man, Patrick McDaid, to safety minutes before, admitted that it had taken a lot of persuasion for him to come forward to give evidence. "I don't talk about Bloody Sunday now [but] I attend the memorial service every anniversary," he said.
He said that if he had a gun on Bloody Sunday "I would have taken a chance after I saw an innocent man shot. He had no weapons, no nail bombs. No one around there had any weapons either. The people that were shot weren't simply shot; they were murdered for no reason at all."
Ms Eilis McDermott QC, for Mr Doherty's family, said they had asked her "to publicly thank you for the heroism you showed on this day in your efforts to help Mr Doherty". Mr Peter Clarke QC, for a number of soldiers, joined other counsel "in saluting you for your courage and your compassion".
Fifteen-year-old Donna Friel, looking down from a second-floor flat, watched the entire episode unfold. Now Mrs Donna Harkin, she said she saw several men crawling towards the shelter of an alleyway.
The last man, Paddy Doherty, pushed an elderly man ahead of him into safety and was then hit in the buttock by a bullet. His body jerked off the ground, and she could see the colour draining from his face.
"I went hysterical," she said. "I had a rosary in my hands and I tried to climb out of the window to get down to the ground to help Mr Doherty. I got my leg out of the window but Mrs McCallion pulled me back in."
She then watched Mr Walsh make several attempts, amid continuous shooting, to go out to Mr Doherty and he eventually reached him.
Concluding her evidence, Mrs Harkin asked the tribunal if she could say something. She said she believed Mr Doherty, a father of six, was an innocent man who was murdered that day.
She hoped that when this inquiry was over, soldiers who had been given medals or bravery awards would return them, "because it was a coward that shot Mr Doherty, not even shooting him in the back, they shot him as he was crawling away, trying to save himself."
The inquiry continues today.