One of the leaders of the civil rights march held in Derry on Bloody Sunday claimed yesterday that the British army's firing of a water cannon at demonstrators had sabotaged efforts being made by march stewards to control the crowd.
Mr Kevin McCorry, who was a full-time organiser with the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, was chief steward for the anti-internment protest demonstration on January 30th, 1972, and travelled on the lorry which led the march from the Creggan. He was satisfied the association had done everything possible to ensure the Derry event would be a peaceful march in constructive opposition to internment.
"If we had thought for one moment that a single life would have been lost, we would, without hesitation, have called off the march." Mr McCorry said that after violence at marches in Belfast and at Magilligan in Co Derry, "there was a certain amount of apprehension about the [British] army's involvement in Derry . . . but no one in their wildest imagination could have conceived what actually happened.
"The Paras undoubtedly had a bad reputation, but we didn't know that they were going to be deployed for the Derry march."
When the demonstration of between 20,000 and 30,000 people reached William Street, the lorry leading it turned right into Rossville Street, but it went around the corner too fast, leaving a gap between it and the people behind. Stewards directed people to Free Derry Corner in the Bogside, but some youngsters went instead to the army's barrier 14 further down William Street.
Mr McCorry said he joined stewards at the barrier pushing people back. It was when the stewards were regaining control that the army fired the water cannon. "There is no doubt that disorientated and confused the crowd and more importantly confused and dispersed the stewards," he claimed.
He then went back to the lorry at Free Derry Corner to get the meeting there under way and to ensure that there was an alternative focal point. He heard gunfire as the meeting started and ran with others to cover among buildings to the south of the corner. Some time later he saw a civilian run past holding a rifle.
Mr McCorry, who was born in Belfast, described himself as having been a Socialist Republican. He said he was never involved in, or endorsed, militant politics and had never been a member of the IRA.
The inquiry will resume on Monday.