Top Ulster Unionist Lord Kilclooney (Mr John Taylor) was today challenged to prove claims that the Bloody Sunday civil rights march was a front for terrorists.
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John Taylor
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The former UUP deputy leader told the Saville Inquiry into the atrocity that the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) had been infiltrated by republicans. He claimed: "The organisation was used as a cover for terrorists".
The Ulster Unionist peer was giving his second day of evidence to the tribunal into the fatal shooting of 13 unarmed anti-internment marchers in Derry in January 1972.
He had been called to the city's Guildhall to tell of his role as a home affairs minister in the old Northern Ireland government at the time of the killings.
Lord Kilclooney prompted fury among relatives of the dead and injured when he claimed yesterday that 13 gunmen were killed on Bloody Sunday.
Questioned today by Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC, representing NICRA, he insisted the organisation had given over two positions on its executive committee to Sinn Féin and the Official IRA. "NICRA wasn't just simply a civil rights movement, it was an organisation infiltrated by Irish republicanism," Lord Kilclooney said.
Mr Blom-Cooper asked if he had documents to support this. "If you have it I think the tribunal would like to see it because that's the first occasion that anyone has suggested this".
Lord Kilclooney insisted he had proof to back his assertion but that it may take hours for him to obtain it from his extensive documents.
PA