Report of the The Bloody Sunday Inquiry Volume 4

Report of the The Bloody Sunday Inquiry
- Volume IV - Chapter 55



Section: Sector 2: The Launch of the Arrest Operation and Events in the Area of the Rossville Flats
The casualties in Sector 2
Sector 2: The Launch of the Arrest Operation and Events in the Area of the Rossville Flats



55.1 As we have already indicated, in Sector 2 Jackie Duddy was killed by gunfire, while Margaret Deery, Michael Bridge and Michael Bradley were wounded by the same means. Patrick McDaid, Patrick Brolly and Pius McCarron were also injured, though whether by gunfire or otherwise was a matter of controversy.

Jackie Duddy

55.2 There is no doubt that Jackie Duddy was shot and mortally wounded in Sector 2. There is equally no doubt, and none has been expressed, that he was shot by a soldier.

Biographical details

55.3 Jackie Duddy’s full name was John Francis Duddy. In the course of this Inquiry, witnesses usually referred to him as either Jackie or Jack Duddy. His family knew him as Jackie, and that is the name that we have used in this report.

55.4 Jackie Duddy was 17 years old at the time of Bloody Sunday. He lived in Central Drive, Creggan, with his father, his five brothers, and eight of his nine sisters. His mother had died of leukaemia in 1968, aged 44 years. Jackie Duddy was employed as a weaver in the factory of Thomas French & Sons Ltd on the Springtown Industrial Estate. He was a keen and successful amateur boxer.1



Prior movements

55.5 Jackie Duddy went on the march on Bloody Sunday with some of his friends. His brother Gerry Duddy and sister Kay Duddy recall him saying that he was going to listen to Bernadette Devlin speaking.1



Medical and scientific evidence

55.6 An autopsy of the body of Jackie Duddy was conducted by Dr Derek Carson, then the Deputy State Pathologist for Northern Ireland,1 on 31st January 1972 at Altnagelvin Hospital. Three other doctors and two Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) photographers were also present.2 The notes, reports and photographs from this autopsy have been considered by Dr Richard Shepherd and Mr Kevin O’Callaghan, who were engaged by this Inquiry as independent experts on pathology and ballistics respectively. Dr Carson, Dr Shepherd and Mr O’Callaghan, all gave written and oral evidence to this Inquiry. Dr Carson also appeared before the Widgery Inquiry.


55.7 In his autopsy report,1 Dr Carson described the following two gunshot wounds:

1. A fairly neat circular hole, 7mm in diameter, on the outer side of the right shoulder, centred 4cm below the tip of the acromion process. This appeared to be an entrance wound. It was surrounded by a narrow rim of abrasion, 1–2mm wide. There was no appreciable bruising around the wound nor was there any blackening of the skin.

2. A somewhat ragged exit wound, measuring 18mm x 8mm, on the left front. This wound was located near the shoulder and centred 9cm to the left of and 2.5cm above the suprasternal notch, and 14cm above the nipple. The long axis of the wound was almost vertical. It lay within an irregular oval zone of abrasion measuring 32mm x 16mm, around which there was vague reddish-purple bruising within an area measuring 9cm x 4.5cm.



55.8 Dr Carson noted that, with the arm by the side, the two wounds lay in a line passing from right to left, forwards at about 20° to the coronal plane and downwards at about 10° to the horizontal plane. A probe could not be passed through the entrance wound in a direct line between the two, even when the arm was put in a variety of positions.

55.9 The internal injuries found by Dr Carson are described in his report.1



55.10 Dr Carson summarised his conclusions about the fatal injury as follows:1

“Death was due to a gunshot wound of the upper chest. The bullet had entered the outer part of the right shoulder and had passed behind the upper part of the arm bone and the right shoulder blade, notching the inner border of the shoulder blade, before passing through the inner end of the second right rib and the second thoracic vertebra. On striking the spine the bullet had been deflected slightly upwards and had then fractured the middle third of the left collar bone and the adjacent parts of the first and second left ribs before leaving the body through the upper part of the left chest. No bullet was recovered from the body.

In its course through the upper chest the bullet had damaged the upper part of each lung and divided the windpipe, the gullet and the left common carotid and subclavian arteries. Bleeding from the damaged blood vessels and lungs would have caused rapid death, whilst breathing would also have been severely impaired by the injury to the windpipe. Death must have occurred within a few minutes.

The extent of bony injury indicated that the bullet must have been fired from a medium or high velocity weapon but since the missile was not recovered it was not possible to determine the calibre. There was nothing to suggest that the weapon had been discharged at close range.

The track of the wound within the body indicated that after entering the body the bullet had first passed from right to left and slightly downwards until it struck the spine, whence it had been deflected slightly upwards and forwards. If the deceased was fully erect when struck, then the bullet must have come directly from his right and slightly above him. ”




55.11 Dr Carson also described a number of minor external injuries.1 His findings about these injuries were as follows:2

“Superficial injuries on the body surface included a shallow laceration on the outer part of the left eyebrow, and abrasions on the left cheek, the upper lip, the left cheek, the left side of the neck, on the backs of the hands and on the front of the left knee. Some were probably caused when he fell to the ground after being struck by the bullet; others, particularly those on the face and neck with a linear marking, could have been caused by his being dragged along face-downwards, or by his sliding along the ground on falling. All these injuries were of trivial nature and none played any part in the death. ”



55.12 In his oral evidence to the Widgery Inquiry,1 and in his written statement to this Inquiry,2 Dr Carson confirmed the conclusions set out in his autopsy report.



55.13 In their report, Dr Shepherd and Mr O’Callaghan reached conclusions similar to those of Dr Carson, which they summarised as follows:1

“[Jackie] DUDDY was struck by a single bullet in the right shoulder which entered the back of the right side of the chest, damaged the right lung, spine, major blood vessels and the left lung and then exited through the left upper chest.

Assuming the Normal Anatomical Position the initial track clearly passed from right to left and there is probably a slight angle backwards. After deflection by the scapula the track passed forwards into the chest where it was again deflected this time by the spine. The greatest care must be exercised in interpreting the track angles in this injury since the mobility of the shoulder may allow for many different positions of the chest and body with the arm in the same position.

The other injuries are minor and due to blunt trauma. The injuries to the face and knee are consistent with a collapse, the injuries to the hand may have been caused in the same way but other forms of minor blunt trauma cannot be excluded. ”



55.14 The photographs of Jackie Duddy’s body taken in the mortuary show the wounds and other injuries described by Dr Carson. We have examined these photographs but do not reproduce them here. A diagram appended to the report of Dr Shepherd and Mr O’Callaghan1 illustrates the positions of the wounds.

55.15 Dr John Martin, then a Principal Scientific Officer in the Department of Industrial and Forensic Science in Belfast, examined the clothing of Jackie Duddy. In his report dated 18th February 19721 he set out the following findings:

“There is a small hole in the right shoulder area of the jacket (item 1). Traces of lead were detected on the edge of this hole which is consistent with a bullet entry. A larger hole in the area of the left chest is consistent with bullet exit. There was corresponding damage to the shirt (item 2). ”



55.16 Dr Martin tested the jacket that Jackie Duddy was wearing when he was shot, and swabs taken from his hands, for the presence of lead particles. Apart from the traces of lead consistent with bullet entry around the hole in the right shoulder of the jacket, Dr Martin detected no significant number of lead particles on the jacket and none on the hand swabs. He concluded that Jackie Duddy had not been using a firearm.1



55.17 Mr Alan Hall, then a Senior Scientific Officer in the same department as Dr Martin, examined the outer clothing of Jackie Duddy for explosives residue. None was detected.1



Where Jackie Duddy was shot

55.18 When discussing the first shots fired by Lieutenant N, we referred to the evidence of the photographer Gilles Peress, who was in Chamberlain Street. After that incident, Gilles Peress ran on to the end of Chamberlain Street.1As he told the Widgery Inquiry, he saw a body in what he described as Rossville Square (by which he meant what we call the car park) beside which was a priest waving a handkerchief.2He then took the following photograph.

55.19 Fulvio Grimaldi, the photojournalist, told the Widgery Inquiry that he arrived at the south end of Chamberlain Street and saw first aid men and priests around a body in the middle of the car park. He said that he watched them duck as they were being fired at from the direction of the Army vehicles; and that he went back to the corner of Chamberlain Street and shouted at the soldiers to stop firing. The shooting continued; the first three shots went over his head. Fulvio Grimaldi then approached the group around the body and took photographs.1

1 M34.1; WT7.61

55.20 In his evidence to this Inquiry, Fulvio Grimaldi said that his recollection was that shots were fired and he shouted at the soldiers before he saw the body.1He told Paul Mahon2that he had seen Jackie Duddy fall;3Fulvio Grimaldi does not appear to have said this on any other occasion and in our view it is probably wrong. It appears from the Mahon transcript that Fulvio Grimaldi was having difficulty in recalling the sequence of events surrounding the shooting of Jackie Duddy. Fulvio Grimaldi took the following photographs of Jackie Duddy lying in the car park.

1 M34.58; Day 131/31-34

2 Paul Mahon completed an academic dissertation on the events of Bloody Sunday in 1997 and thereafter undertook further substantial research into the subject, in the course of which he conducted a large number of recorded interviews of witnesses, the great majority of whom were civilians.

55.21 In his written statement to this Inquiry,1 Liam Bradley identified himself as the man shown wearing a cap in these photographs. In his written statement to this Inquiry, Charles Glenn, a Corporal in the Order of Malta Ambulance Corps, said that the first of these photographs showed the scene as he attended to Jackie Duddy. He can be recognised in this and the other two photographs by his Order of Malta Ambulance Corps uniform.2



55.22 It is possible, from the lines marking the car park bays, to see more or less exactly where Jackie Duddy was in the Rossville Flats car park when these photographs were taken. However, there is evidence that indicates that he was probably a little further north when he fell.

55.23 Fr Edward Daly (who later became Bishop Daly) is the priest shown in these photographs. In his evidence to the Widgery Inquiry,1 and in an account given to Philip Jacobson and Peter Pringle of the Sunday Times on 16th March 1972,2 he said that he had been in Rossville Street between Eden Place and Pilot Row when he heard the Army vehicles and saw them coming towards Rossville Street. He ran with others across the Eden Place waste ground and past the western end of the wire fence. At about the corner of the Rossville Flats he passed a young boy, and shortly after that, when the boy was a few feet behind him, he heard a shot ring out, looked round, and saw the boy falling. Fr Daly’s evidence was that Jackie Duddy fell forwards onto his face and, alluding to the car park markings, that he “actually fell on the ground on the cross-section of one of those lines – I think about the third or fourth one in. Again I could not swear to that, but it was in the middle of that diagram for the cars ”.3




55.24 Fr Daly ran on, not realising that a live round had hit Jackie Duddy, and then lay on the ground for cover. After a time, he looked over his shoulder and saw Jackie Duddy lying on his back. Fr Daly then went to the aid of Jackie Duddy.1 He did not appreciate that in the meantime a Mr Barber had come to Jackie Duddy’s aid, and until he discovered this Fr Daly was puzzled as to how Jackie Duddy had come to be lying on his back.2



55.25 We are sure that the man to whom Fr Daly referred in his evidence to the Widgery Inquiry was the late Willy Barber, who said in an interview with John Barry of the Sunday Times Insight Team that a young man (evidently Jackie Duddy) had been running on his left and suddenly fell forwards. Willy Barber and someone else put their arms under his shoulders and tried to drag him along, but found him very heavy and turned him over.1



55.26 Brian Johnston told us in his written statement to this Inquiry1 that he saw Jackie Duddy fall forwards onto his face at a point that he indicated on a photograph as being near the centre of the line separating the third and fourth parking bays in the row of seven closest to Block 1 of the Rossville Flats, counting from the end closer to the waste ground.2 Brian Johnston said that after he fell, Jackie Duddy’s head was pointing towards the south-east corner of the car park of the Rossville Flats and his feet were pointing towards Rossville Street.3





55.27 The Inquiry experts Dr Shepherd and Mr O’Callaghan noted in their report that Jackie Duddy sustained a number of minor injuries to the face (predominantly on the left side) and the front of the left knee, consistent with a collapse.1 This in turn is consistent with the evidence that Jackie Duddy fell forwards.



55.28 On the evidence of these witnesses we are sure that Jackie Duddy was shot and fell on his face as he was moving in a generally southerly direction, probably somewhere around the centre of the row of seven parking bays closest to Block 1 of the Rossville Flats, and that his body was then dragged a short distance further on and turned over, so as to arrive in the position in which it is seen in the photographs shown above. We set out below an aerial photograph of the Rossville Flats, showing on the basis of this evidence where Jackie Duddy fell and where he was when the photographs were taken.

55.29 According to the Sunday Times Insight article published on 23rd April 1972,1 Neil McLaughlin, Jackie Duddy and others came along Chamberlain Street from William Street, and seeing the Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) drawn up in the car park surged towards it, “most if not all of them ” on their way to the back of the car park. However, a note prepared by John Barry of the Sunday Times Insight Team of an interview with Neil McLaughlin does not explicitly record that the group going along Chamberlain Street and into the car park included Jackie Duddy, but only that it included Neil McLaughlin “and his mates ”.2



55.30 According to this note, while Neil McLaughlin was a “self-confessed aggro man ”, he described Jackie Duddy as someone who usually went miles to avoid trouble. The note does not record Neil McLaughlin saying that Jackie Duddy was taking part in the riot at Barrier 14, and implies the contrary in the remark “If he wasn’t throwing stones, it was only because he was with Jack Duddy ”, though in his written statement to this Inquiry1 Neil McLaughlin admitted that he himself did throw stones.



55.31 Again according to this note, Neil McLaughlin said that the group of which he was part surged towards the soldiers who were disembarking from their vehicle (evidently Sergeant O’s APC). He saw an Order of Malta Ambulance Corps volunteer fall, not necessarily shot, “by the back wall of the C[hamberlain] St row – in other words the crowd running forward had just about cleared the gable end ”; then Margaret Deery was shot on his right and Neil McLaughlin flung himself to the ground, after which he saw a crowd “up in the car park ” clustered around another body; and then Michael Bridge ran past Neil McLaughlin and was shot.

55.32 To our minds this evidence suggests that Neil McLaughlin’s group was active in the area around the gable end and side wall of the garden of 36 Chamberlain Street, rather than in the area where Jackie Duddy was shot; and that if (as seems to us to be the case) Jackie Duddy was the person around whose body a crowd was clustered in the car park, he must have parted company with Neil McLaughlin some time before he was shot.

55.33 Neil McLaughlin’s evidence to this Inquiry was that he now had no recollection of seeing Jackie Duddy at all on Bloody Sunday, either before or after he was shot, although he accepted that it was possible that he had done so.1 He took issue with, or said that he had no recollection of, several matters recorded in John Barry’s note.2 However, we are of the view that John Barry’s note is likely to be an accurate account of what he was told by Neil McLaughlin.

1 AM347.9; Day 91/15; Day 91/18 2Day 91/16-37

55.34 In his written evidence to this Inquiry,1 Kevin Leonard told us that he recalled seeing Jackie Duddy throwing stones in the group of people rioting with him at Barrier 14, and that Jackie Duddy was ahead of him when they ran down Chamberlain Street. However, in his oral evidence to this Inquiry, he accepted that this was all presumption on his part:2

“Q. It seems to be the case that when you saw a person shot in the courtyard of the flats you did not appreciate that it was Jackie Duddy?

A. No, not at the time.

Q. Is it the case, really, that you presumed that because this person was shot in a group ahead of you running across the courtyard, he must have run from Chamberlain Street?

A. That is correct.

Q. You presumed also, then, that if he was running along Chamberlain Street, as you had, he must have been in William Street near the barrier as you had?

A. Yes.

Q. And therefore you presumed, effectively, that he was at the barrier in the group throwing stones?

A. Yes, that is correct.

Q. Really you cannot be sure that Jackie Duddy was in this group throwing stones at the barrier, is that fair?

A. Yes, that is a fair comment to say. ”



55.35 In his written statement to this Inquiry,1 Patrick McKeever told us that he and his friend Joseph McGrory were in a group of four or five people running from the south end of Chamberlain Street towards the passage between Blocks 1 and 2 of the Rossville Flats. A young man (evidently Jackie Duddy) was running in the group, and fell in front of Patrick McKeever and to his right, clearly fatally injured. Joseph McGrory gave a similar account in his written statement to this Inquiry,2 but added that he did not recall whether the young man had been running as part of a group or on his own; and in oral evidence3 he said that people were scrambling in all directions and he would never have known from where the young man had come.


55.36 There is other evidence that suggests that Jackie Duddy may not have come down Chamberlain Street. We set out below, with some changes and additions, what we regard as an accurate summary of this evidence prepared by Counsel to the Inquiry:1

(a) In his written statement to this Inquiry2 (see also his interview with Jimmy McGovern3,4), Gerry Duddy said that he spoke to his brother Jackie at about the point marked C on the plan attached to his statement5 (on Rossville Street near the north end of Kells Walk). His brother told him that he had been up by the Army barrier in William Street. After a few minutes, his brother said that he was heading off, crossed Rossville Street and started to walk across the waste ground in the direction of the Rossville Flats. Subsequently the Army vehicles entered the area from Little James Street.

(b) In her Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) statement,6 Isabella Duffy described coming out of her brother’s flat in the Rossville Flats and seeing the arrival of the Army vehicles and the disembarkation of the soldiers. She said that she saw a little boy (in our view Jackie Duddy) running across the car park of the Rossville Flats “from the direction of the soldiers ”. She saw the soldiers shooting, and initially thought that they were firing baton rounds, but then saw the boy fall, apparently dead. In her statement to the Widgery Inquiry,7 she said that the boy was running away from the soldiers. In her oral evidence to the Widgery Inquiry, she said that her brother’s flat was on the second floor of Block 2 of the Rossville Flats.8,9 She told the Widgery Inquiry10 that the boy was coming “from the Saracens ”. In her statement to this Inquiry,11 she said that she saw Jackie Duddy running in from the entrance to the car park, and that he seemed to be at the tail end of the people who had run down William Street (sic) towards the Rossville Flats.

(c) In his written statement to this Inquiry,12 Brian Johnston said that Jackie Duddy had run from the waste ground by Pilot Row into the car park of the Rossville Flats, at the tail end of a small group.



3 Jimmy McGovern was the scriptwriter of the Channel 4 drama-documentary Sunday, first broadcast on 28th January 2002 to mark the 30th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.




9 Isabella Duffy gave us a different description of the location of her brother’s flat (AD158.1). However, we are sure that the brother in question was the late Patrick Friel, since Isabella Duffy referred to him as Pat Friel (AD158.1), and Patrick Friel’s son John Patrick Friel told us that Isabella Duffy was his aunt (AF32.25). Patrick Friel’s address was 19 Garvan Place (AF38.1; AF38.3), which was at the western end and on the second and third floors of Block 2 of the Rossville Flats.




55.37 It will be seen from the foregoing that there is conflicting evidence as to whether Jackie Duddy had come into the car park from the southern end of Chamberlain Street or from the Eden Place waste ground. On the whole we consider the latter the more likely. In this regard, although Fr Daly told us that he did not know where Jackie Duddy had come from when he saw him,1 his evidence to the Widgery Inquiry was to the effect that he remembered the young boy running beside him: “I was running and he was running and looking back, and I overtook him. He laughed at me. He was amused to see me running. ” There was then this passage:2

“LORD WIDGERY: But you overtook him?

A. Yes. I am not an athlete myself. I do not think I am a very graceful runner. He looked at me at this point about the corner of the wire. That is why he stuck in my memory. I went in here and the Saracens came right up this way, and I remember that the first shot I heard, this young boy was about a few feet behind me and there was a shot, and simultaneously he gasped or grunted – something like that. I looked round and he just fell. ”




55.38 We are sure that Fr Daly had come, as he said, from Rossville Street, somewhere between Eden Place and Pilot Row. The wire to which he referred in this passage was in our view the wire fence across the southern edge of the Eden Place waste ground, which Fr Daly must have passed at its western end. To our minds this account by Fr Daly is another indication that Jackie Duddy had come into the car park from the same general direction, rather than from the end of Chamberlain Street.

When Jackie Duddy was shot

55.39 Fr Daly has consistently stated that the shot that hit Jackie Duddy was the first shot that he heard after the soldiers entered the Bogside.1 As already noted, he did not realise at first that what he had heard was a live round as opposed to a baton round, though he did say to us: “I thought the shot was a bit sharp for that of a rubber bullet gun. ”2 Fr Daly told us that he did not recall hearing any reports of baton rounds before Jackie Duddy was shot. It is also clear from Fr Daly’s evidence that Jackie Duddy was shot soon after the soldiers arrived.3



55.40 Brian Johnston, to whose evidence we have referred earlier in this chapter,1 gave a Keville interview2 in which he described seeing Jackie Duddy fall about four to five feet to his right; and went over to lift him up. He said: “… I know that up until this stage there were no guns fired at all. ”


55.41 We have discussed earlier in this report1 the circumstances of the arrest of William John Doherty by Sergeant O near the back wall of the Chamberlain Street houses, which from the evidence we have considered in that context was soon after Sergeant O’s APC had arrived in the car park. We now describe the evidence of a number of civilian witnesses whose accounts seem to us to show that Jackie Duddy was shot at the same time as, or immediately after, this incident.


55.42 We have referred above1 to John Barry’s note of his interview of Willy Barber. According to this note, Willy Barber said that he ran past a paratrooper who was trying to beat hell out of an old man with the barrel of his rifle. He turned at “the Chamberlain St gable ” and saw someone thumping the soldier in the face. This enabled the old man to run off, but the soldier apprehended him again. Willy Barber ran, and a young man running beside him fell.2 It seems to us that the “old man ” was William John Doherty, and from Willy Barber’s account of then trying to move the fallen man, which we have considered above, we are sure that this was Jackie Duddy.



55.43 We have also referred above1 to the evidence of Isabella Duffy when considering the direction from which Jackie Duddy had come. In her NICRA statement, Isabella Duffy said that after she had seen a boy fall in the car park of the Rossville Flats she saw an old man being beaten.2 In our view she was referring to Jackie Duddy and William John Doherty respectively.


55.44 Elizabeth Dunleavy told us that she saw the shooting of Jackie Duddy after she had seen three soldiers beating a “boy ” (who may well have been William John Doherty) and after a “boy ” in Order of Malta Ambulance Corps uniform had been hit by a baton round (perhaps Charles Glenn, although if so Elizabeth Dunleavy appears to have been mistaken as to how he was hurt).1 Her NICRA statement2 does not refer to the beating, but places the other two incidents in the same sequence.



55.45 We have already referred1 to some of the evidence of Charles Glenn, a Corporal in the Order of Malta Ambulance Corps, when considering the arrest of William John Doherty. As we have already noted, Charles Glenn described how he was hit with a rifle butt and knocked to the ground after trying to intervene in an incident in which a paratrooper had grabbed an old man, which we consider is likely to have been the arrest of William John Doherty. In his NICRA statement he recorded that as he fell, he heard a shot. He was stunned, but when he recovered, he saw a man lying in a pool of blood in the car park with Fr Daly bending over him.2 We have no doubt this was Jackie Duddy. A similar account appears in the record of Charles Glenn’s interview with Philip Jacobson of the Sunday Times,3 and in his written statement to this Inquiry.4




55.46 Celine Brolly described to this Inquiry being in a flat on the second floor of Block 2 of the Rossville Flats.1 According to her NICRA statement,2 she saw a “First Aid boy ” running to the aid of a middle-aged man who was being punched and battered by three soldiers. The first aid boy was thrown on the ground. “He was still lying on the ground and Father Daly called him. ” It seems from this statement that by then Fr Daly had gone to Jackie Duddy. We consider that this “First Aid boy ” was Charles Glenn, who went to the aid of Jackie Duddy and can be seen beside him in the photographs shown earlier in this chapter.3



55.47 According to his NICRA statement1 Patrick McCrudden was visiting a friend at 37 Donagh Place. This was on the top floor of Block 2 of the Rossville Flats, at about the centre of that block. He gave an account of seeing the “saracens ” come in, and continued:

“The people were fleeing in panic. While one soldier was attacking a middle-aged man, a member of the Order of Malta attempted to intervene. The soldier turned and struck this first aid man (dressed in the usual grey uniform) first with the butt of the rifle on both body and face and kicked him. The Order of Malta man collapsed and disappeared from view behind a wall. The middle aged man was arrested. Others were being beaten up and arrested in the same manner in different parts of the wasteground.

I glanced down into the courtyard and saw a man lying on the ground with dark red stains on his chest. Father Daly seemed to be attending to this man. ”



55.48 In our view what Patrick McCrudden saw was Sergeant O arresting William John Doherty; Charles Glenn, the Corporal in the Order of Malta Ambulance Corps; and then Fr Daly attending Jackie Duddy.

Whether Jackie Duddy had anything in his hands

55.49 A number of witnesses said that Jackie Duddy had nothing in his hands. As to accounts given in 1972, Fr Daly said in his written statement for the Widgery Inquiry that when he reached Jackie Duddy there was nothing in his hands.1 He also told the Widgery Inquiry that when he passed Jackie Duddy before he fell “he was not carrying anything that I saw in his hand ”.2 William McChrystal recorded in his NICRA statement that when he reached Jackie Duddy Fr Daly was kneeling over his body, and added: “When I arrived at the youth’s side there was no evidence of any weapon, gun, nail-bomb, or stone. ”3 Patrick Gerard Doherty recorded in his NICRA statement4 that he saw Jackie Duddy fall, and that “He had nothing in his hands ”.



55.50 In evidence to this Inquiry Cathleen O’Donnell,1 Brian Ward,2 Kevin Leonard3 and Isabella Duffy4 all told us that Jackie Duddy had nothing in his hands. All except the first of these witnesses gave statements in 1972, but none said anything in those statements about whether Jackie Duddy had anything in his hands when he was shot.5








55.51 On the other hand, two witnesses gave evidence to the opposite effect.

55.52 In his Keville interview1 Christy Lavery described seeing a man fall: “we had just got about three quarters the way across the flats when he fell, as he was falling I saw the blood spurting from his chest and I stopped and turned him over the blood was running out of him he had obviously been shot. ” A little later in this interview he was asked whether any of the people he witnessed being shot or beaten were “armed with any stones or any guns or anything else? ”. He replied: “The boy who was shot had a stone in his hand but he had no arms. When he fell his hand was facing up and there was a stone on it. ”



55.53 Christy Lavery gave written and oral evidence to this Inquiry. In his written evidence he told us that Jackie Duddy had a stone in his right hand.1 In his oral evidence he first described the stone as “pretty small about tennis ball size ”, but later as smaller, perhaps the size of a golf ball or large marble.2



55.54 We have already referred to the evidence of Brian Johnston as to where Jackie Duddy fell, and to his account of what he then did.1 In his written evidence to this Inquiry,2 Brian Johnston told us that when he reached Jackie Duddy: “I saw the fellow’s right hand opening. Inside there was a pebble the size of a bead. I remember thinking ‘my God, did you think you were going to take on the might of the British Army with a pebble’ .” He went on to state that he had since thought about it and believed that the pebble must have been scooped up into his hand as he fell. Brian Johnston said nothing about what Jackie Duddy had had in his hand in his interview with Kathleen Keville or in his written statement for the Widgery Inquiry.3


55.55 On the basis of these accounts, we consider that Christy Lavery and Brian Johnston were the first to reach Jackie Duddy after he had fallen. Both gave accounts of seeing a stone in Jackie Duddy’s right hand. If they were right about this, that stone might well have fallen out of his hand as he was dragged a short distance, which would account for the fact that Fr Daly did not see it when he went to the body. Despite the other evidence to which we have referred above, we have concluded that Jackie Duddy probably did have a stone in his right hand when he was shot, though its size is uncertain.

What Jackie Duddy was doing when he was shot

55.56 Fr Daly1 and a substantial number of other witnesses2 described Jackie Duddy as running southwards when he was shot.




55.57 However, in his written evidence to this Inquiry,1 Patrick Gerard Doherty told us that at the time he was shot Jackie Duddy was “standing shouting at the soldiers, he was not running away ”. He also told us that he thought Jackie Duddy then fell on his back. When he gave oral evidence he was asked about this:2

“Q. When you said to us earlier ‘when they moved out of the way, I seen he was lying on his back’, does that mean that the other people that were in the car park surrounding him and between you possibly and him, that your view was somewhat obscured?

A. Yeah.

Q. I am not suggesting that when you – at some stage he was not on his back, he definitely ended up on his back?

A. (inaudible) when I seen him, he was lying on his back. I only presumed that he had fell to the –

Q. But I am suggesting the body of the evidence is when he was shot he fell on to his face, and after some time he was turned onto his back?

A. Most likely is.

Q. Which is not too far away from what you are saying, but I am suggesting that when you eventually got a clear sight of him lying on his back, it was that that led you to the conclusion that he must have been standing facing the soldiers when he was shot; could you be a bit mistaken about that?

A. Might have been, it has been a long time ago. ”



55.58 Patrick Gerard Doherty said nothing in his NICRA statement about what Jackie Duddy was doing when he was shot.1 In view of the large body of evidence to the effect that Jackie Duddy was running, we believe that Patrick Gerard Doherty was mistaken in his recollection on this point, as he acknowledged could be the case after so long. In our view Jackie Duddy was running away from the soldiers when he was shot.



Whether Jackie Duddy was in the middle of a hostile crowd

55.59 The representatives of the majority of represented soldiers referred to the evidence of Neil McLaughlin, to which we have referred above,1 that having come down Chamberlain Street he and about 20 others advanced, throwing stones at the APC.2 In reliance on that evidence they submitted:3

“It is therefore probable that Jack Duddy was accidentally hit at a time when he was among or close to a hostile crowd that was throwing objects at the soldiers, and when a soldier aimed at another person. ”



55.60 We do not accept this submission. Apart from the fact that no soldier (save perhaps Private R) admitted even the possibility that he had hit anyone by accident, and all maintained that the people that they had hit had been engaged in activities that justified them being shot, the submission proceeds upon the assumption that Jackie Duddy had come down Chamberlain Street with Neil McLaughlin and others who had previously been rioting. For reasons we have given,1we are of the view that Jackie Duddy had probably come from the Eden Place waste ground. Furthermore, we accept Fr Daly’s evidence that Jackie Duddy was near him when he was shot and that, in that area of the car park at least, people were only trying to run away.2



55.61 Fr Daly told us that he was towards the rear of the crowd that ran through the car park of the Rossville Flats. He said that quite a number of people had been running close to him and Jackie Duddy.1 He also gave evidence that a number of people had been running in the immediate vicinity of himself and Jackie Duddy at the time of the shooting, although he emphasised that he had not been counting heads; and that there were a substantial number (some 60 to 100) of panic-stricken and frightened people ahead of him trying to escape through the gap between Blocks 1 and 2 of the Rossville Flats.2


55.62 Brian Johnston (to whom we have referred above1) told us in his written statement to this Inquiry2 that Jackie Duddy was running at the tail end of a small group, having become isolated and fallen a little behind. In his oral evidence he said that the group consisted only of Jackie Duddy, the priest (Fr Daly) and two or three others.3



55.63 Other witnesses, namely Angela Copp,1Kevin McDaid2and Martin Tucker,3have also said that there were a few other people, but not very many, close to Jackie Duddy as he ran.



55.64 Although Jackie Duddy probably had a stone in his right hand when he was shot, we do not know whether he was about to throw it when he was shot. The medical evidence is that he was shot in the right shoulder, which indicates that at the moment of shooting his upper body was turned towards the soldiers from whom he was running, but it does not follow that he was about to throw the stone, as opposed to turning to see where the soldiers were.

Where Jackie Duddy was taken

55.65 In his written statement for the Widgery Inquiry,1 Fr Daly recorded that after he reached Jackie Duddy there was more gunfire, and he and Charles Glenn lay down beside Jackie Duddy. Fr Daly then described giving Jackie Duddy the last rites, and seeing the shooting of Michael Bridge while still lying beside Jackie Duddy. Fr Daly said that Willy Barber and another man crawled out sometime after Michael Bridge had been shot, and offered to help to carry Jackie Duddy to a position where he could receive medical aid. They suggested that Fr Daly should go in front, carrying a white handkerchief, and that they would carry Jackie Duddy behind him. Just as they were about to stand up and make a dash to Chamberlain Street, a gunman appeared at the wall of the last house in Chamberlain Street and (in an incident to which we return later in this report2) fired two or three shots at the soldiers. Fr Daly shouted at the gunman to go away, which he did. Fr Daly remained on the ground for a few more moments, and then rose onto his knees and was about to stand up when the Army opened fire again. He and the others with him lay down again for a while.


55.66 In his interview with Philip Jacobson and Peter Pringle of the Sunday Times,1 Fr Daly said that the scene of him and the others rising and then throwing themselves to the ground when firing broke out again was shown on CBS film footage broadcast in the United States.



55.67 However, the surviving CBS footage1 shows only the next stage of events, in which Fr Daly, waving a bloodstained handkerchief, led the way as Willy Barber, Liam Bradley, Charles Glenn and William McChrystal carried Jackie Duddy out of the car park of the Rossville Flats to Chamberlain Street. This sequence also appears to show Fr Daly reacting to the sound of shooting, and in his oral evidence to us2 he confirmed that there was “gunfire coming in, at that stage, again ”. It must be borne in mind that this gunfire, or some or it, may have been that occurring in Sector 3, as we describe when dealing with the events of that sector.


55.68 Fulvio Grimaldi’s photograph also shows the group led by Fr Daly making their way across the car park.

55.69 Fr Daly said in his written statement for the Widgery Inquiry1 that he and the group carrying Jackie Duddy went up Chamberlain Street and turned right into Harvey Street, where they were challenged by soldiers, and where they met the BBC reporter John Bierman and his camera crew.



55.70 These soldiers were from C Company, who had come through Barrier 14 in William Street. Later in this report1 we discuss the actions of the soldiers of C Company in Chamberlain Street.



55.71 Fr Daly said in his interview with Philip Jacobson and Peter Pringle1 that a couple of shots were fired as he and those carrying Jackie Duddy moved up Chamberlain Street, but he did not know the source of that gunfire.



55.72 Hugh McMonagle told us in his written statement1 that he joined the group led by Fr Daly at the south end of Chamberlain Street and helped to carry Jackie Duddy up the street. As they did this, Hugh McMonagle could hear shooting. He thought that shots were being fired south down Chamberlain Street over the heads of the group carrying Jackie Duddy. Having seen the BBC footage filmed by Cyril Cave,2 he said that it showed a soldier at the corner of Chamberlain Street and Eden Place firing a shot from his midriff towards the south end of Chamberlain Street, at the time when Jackie Duddy was being carried up the street.



55.73 In his written statement for the Widgery Inquiry,1 Cyril Cave referred to the soldier who is seen in his film footage2 in a doorway at the corner of Chamberlain Street and Eden Place. Cyril Cave said that this soldier shouted “Hold fire. They are bringing a casualty ”, but that he had not actually seen any of the soldiers firing in Chamberlain Street. However, in his written statement to this Inquiry,3Cyril Cave said that he thought that he had seen the soldier fire a shot down Chamberlain Street, and that about half a minute later he had heard a paratrooper shout “casualty coming! ” and had seen Fr Daly and the group carrying Jackie Duddy approaching. In his oral evidence4Cyril Cave said that although he was not sure, he thought that it was possible that his footage showed the soldier in the doorway firing down Chamberlain Street.




55.74 On the other hand, Cyril Cave’s colleague John Bierman told us in his written statement1 and in his oral evidence2 that although the soldier in the doorway was in a firing position he did not fire his weapon. John Bierman also said3 that he heard a voice saying “Hold your fire ” coming from south of the junction of Chamberlain Street and Eden Place, and he deduced that these were Fr Daly’s words. In view of this we consider that Hugh McMonagle was mistaken in coming to believe that a soldier had fired down Chamberlain Street at this time and that Cyril Cave’s evidence to the Widgery Inquiry that he saw no soldier firing in Chamberlain Street is to be preferred to his later recollection. No soldier of C Company reported firing his rifle on Bloody Sunday and there is no other evidence to suggest that any of them did so.




55.75 Willy Barber said in his Sunday Times interview1 that he temporarily left the group carrying Jackie Duddy because he had two baton rounds in his pocket and did not wish to be caught with them in the city centre, and that after relieving himself of the baton rounds he rejoined the group. Cyril Cave’s footage2 shows the group carrying Jackie Duddy as they approached and turned the corner of Harvey Street. Hugh McMonagle has taken the place of Willy Barber, who then runs forward and rejoins the group at the corner.



55.76 James Dakin, a Daily Express staff photographer, took a photograph which shows the group carrying Jackie Duddy as they turned the corner into Harvey Street. A second photograph, taken by Frederick Hoare, a Belfast Telegraph staff photographer, and a third, taken by James Dakin, show the group moving up Harvey Street.

55.77 In his written statement for the Widgery Inquiry,1 Fr Daly said that the group proceeded up Harvey Street to the corner of Waterloo Street, where they laid Jackie Duddy on the ground, on Willy Barber’s coat. Soldiers further down the street ordered them to clear off. A woman came out of a house and screamed at the soldiers that Jackie Duddy was only a child and that they had shot him. Another woman called an ambulance. People came out of the houses. Fr Daly and others knelt by Jackie Duddy and said a prayer. After a time the ambulance arrived.



55.78 It appears from Charles Glenn’s NICRA statement1 and from the record of his interview with Philip Jacobson2 that when he arrived in Waterloo Street Charles Glenn checked Jackie Duddy’s pulse and breathing and, finding no signs of life, concluded that he had died on the way to Waterloo Street. In his statement to this Inquiry3Charles Glenn said that he thought that Jackie Duddy was already dead when he first reached him in the car park of the Rossville Flats, although he acknowledged that he was not qualified to make that assessment.




55.79 The ambulance driver Norman McElhinney and attendant William Wilson recorded in statements made to the RUC1that they took Jackie Duddy to Altnagelvin Hospital where Mr Harvey pronounced him dead on arrival. They then conveyed his body to the mortuary.



55.80 We return later in this report1 to consider whether it is possible from the evidence available to us to identify the soldier who shot Jackie Duddy.


Margaret Deery

Biographical details

55.81 Margaret Deery, often known as Peggy Deery, was 38 years old at the time of Bloody Sunday. She lived in Swilly Gardens, Creggan, with her 14 children, whose ages ranged from 16 years to 10 months. Her husband had died of cancer in October 1971, aged 37 years.1


Prior movements

55.82 In her statement to the RUC,1 Margaret Deery said that she had reached the Rossville Street area after being given a lift in a car from the Creggan to Great James Street and then walking down Little James Street. According to Philip Jacobson’s notes of his interview of her,2 Margaret Deery told him that she was “not really on the march ” but had been “intending to look at the end part of the march ”. The car journey is not mentioned in these notes, and Margaret Deery did not say in either of her other accounts3 how she reached Rossville Street.




55.83 On the other hand, Margaret Deery’s daughter Helen Deery told us in her written statement to this Inquiry,1 and in an interview with Stephen Gargan of Gaslight Productions Ltd, the co-producer of Sunday, a drama-documentary first broadcast in 2002,2 that she accompanied her mother on the march, together with two cousins and one of her mother’s friends. Margaret Deery’s son Owen Deery said in his written statement to this Inquiry3 that he had also been with his mother at the beginning of the march. Celine Brolly told us in her written statement4 and in her oral evidence5 that she saw Margaret Deery moving down the part of William Street east of the junction with Rossville Street towards Barrier 14.






55.84 The evidence of Helen Deery, Owen Deery and Celine Brolly satisfies us that Margaret Deery took part in the march on Bloody Sunday, and that the account that she gave to the RUC of how she came to be in the area of Rossville Street was untrue. However, we find it understandable that Margaret Deery should have been unwilling to admit that she had been on the march, since had she done so she might have been prosecuted and imprisoned for taking part in a prohibited public procession. Indeed, in her oral evidence to this Inquiry1 Helen Deery told us that when her mother made her statement to the RUC,2 she was afraid to say that she had been on the march in case she was charged. We consider that this is the reason why Margaret Deery lied to the RUC about how she reached the Rossville Street area, and apparently also to Philip Jacobson about whether she had been on the march. In these circumstances, we do not attach any significance to these lies in evaluating the remainder of Margaret Deery’s evidence.



Medical evidence

55.85 Mr George Fenton, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Altnagelvin Hospital, gave the following description of injuries to Margaret Deery’s left thigh in a letter to Detective Sergeant Cudmore of the RUC dated 7th February 1972:1

“Admitted with gun shot wound thigh. Small entrance wound on front of thigh and very large exit wound on back of thigh. There was extensive damage to thigh muscles and comminuted fracture of femur. ”



55.86 In recovering from her injuries, Margaret Deery suffered serious complications. On the evening of Bloody Sunday, she underwent an operation at Altnagelvin Hospital, during which she received a transfusion of blood which was afterwards discovered to be rhesus incompatible. Following the transfusion, she developed acute renal failure and on 1st February 1972 was transferred to the renal unit at Belfast City Hospital. She became very ill and for a time it was thought that her leg might have to be amputated. Margaret Deery remained at Belfast City Hospital until 3rd March 1972. She was then transferred back to Altnagelvin Hospital, where she underwent further operations. She was eventually discharged on 29th May 1972.1


55.87 Dr Richard Shepherd and Mr Kevin O’Callaghan, the experts on pathology and ballistics engaged by this Inquiry, reviewed the medical records relating to the injuries sustained by those who received non-fatal gunshot wounds on Bloody Sunday. In their report on these cases,1 Dr Shepherd and Mr O’Callaghan made the following comments about Margaret Deery’s injuries:

“Peggy [Margaret] Deery is recorded to have had an ‘extensive wound on the back of her left thigh’ and a complex and compound fracture of the left femur. At operation a wound to the front of the lower left thigh was recorded as simply being present but the wound on the back of the lower left thigh was described as ‘extensive’. The track of the wound is therefore more likely to be from front to back than the reverse. No comment can be made concerning the nature of the projectile. ”



Accounts given by Margaret Deery

55.88 Margaret Deery was in hospital while the Widgery Inquiry was sitting, and gave no oral evidence to that Inquiry. She died in 1988 and consequently gave no evidence to this Inquiry. However, she gave the following accounts:

1. a statement to the RUC dated 19th February 1972, when she was in Belfast City Hospital;1

2. a statement for the Widgery Inquiry dated 29th February 1972, which was taken and witnessed by a Belfast solicitor’s apprentice;2

3. notes made by Philip Jacobson of the Sunday Times Insight Team of an interview with her conducted on 29th February 1972;3and

4. a note of her recollections made on 25th January 1983.4We do not know who made this note.






55.89 According to her statement to the RUC, Margaret Deery had a conversation with Fr Daly at the junction of Rossville Street and William Street in which Fr Daly advised her to go wherever she was going because “there may be a lot of trouble ”. Her statement continued:1

“At this point there was no stone-throwing or trouble that I could see, but again I was in the middle of the main crowd. The Army then fired coloured dye and I ran like hell towards Rossville Street at the back of the High Flats. By this time my sister and I had got separated in the crowd. I was round the back of these high flats running towards the wee gate at the back of the flats whenever I tripped and fell. There were hundreds of people in this area running to get away from the Army who had driven into the back of the flats in Saracens. A man had fallen on top of me and he got up and ran around the corner. Whilst I was on the ground I was able to see the Army men in front of me and I saw and heard them shooting. I attempted to get up but I slipped and cut my head and nose. I then saw a soldier in front of me and he appeared to be taking aim at me and I then felt a blow to my left thigh. I called to a man to help me which he did and he took me to a house in Chamberlain Street where Mr. Slingwing the Chemist treated my wound. I was later taken to Altnagelvin Hospital by ambulance along with Michael Bridge. I’d like to say that I did not take part in the Civil Rights March although I was in the crowd at William Street. I am not a member of any organisation and have not attended any Civil Rights Meetings. ”



55.90 Detective Sergeant Cudmore took this statement. In his report1he referred to a map on which Margaret Deery had marked her approximate position when she was shot. We are sure that that map is the following, which accompanied Detective Sergeant Cudmore’s report when that was passed to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

55.91 Margaret Deery’s written statement for the Widgery Inquiry, dated 29th February 1972, was in the following terms:1

“I am Mrs. Margaret Deery. I am a widow and I have 14 children. I live at […].

On January 30 the soldiers were firing C.S. Gas. I ran from William Street, along Rossville Street to Chamberlain Street. Someone shouted that the soldiers were coming. I looked at the courtyard of Rossville Flats and saw 8 or 9 Saracens coming in. Soldiers jumped out of the Saracens. There was a man standing there. He seemed to be mesmerised. I ran towards this man. I told him that I thought that the soldiers looked as if they were going to shoot. I looked. I sa [sic] a soldier take aim and fire. He, the soldier who shot me, was only about 20 feet away from me. I was hit in the leg. I had absolutely nothing in my hands. I fell. I got up and fell down again. I hadn’t realised I had been hit by a lead bullet. I didn’t see anybody else fall down.

A man came to help me. The man pulled me round the corner. A young fellow I knew, Michael Kelly, helped the man to carry me into a house. The chemist, Otto Slingwing, bandaged up my leg. The ambulance came and took me to Altnagelvin. Micky Bridge was in the ambulance with me. ”




55.92 The note of Philip Jacobson’s interview of Margaret Deery records her as saying:1

“I was standing just out on the waste ground by eden street, actually it was where pilot row used to be and i heard a man nearby shout ‘the army’s coming in.’ I looked over towards rossville street and there were the big pigs coming in and one headed over towards where we were. then i saw a soldier with the red para hat come up from the pig that was near us and he took aim I thought at me or the man standing next to me (she doesnt know who he was). I shouted to this chap ‘for gods sake, watch out, that ones going to shoot’ and as i moved towards the man, for protection like, i felt this big thump in my leg, in the thigh really. its funny, i never heard the bang. the soldier was not more than 25 yards, i could recognise him clearly if i saw him again. he was about your height (5' 10"), fatter than you (!) with a round fat face and a little dark of complexion, although he also had that black stuff streaked over his face.

I tried to get up, i didnt realise i was shot then, and i staggered forward and fell again and cut my eye open (deep cut over left eye). when i was down the second time i saw a chap suddenly fall and crawl away round the corner into chamberlain street. i thought he was shot, but then he came back round and him and Michael Kelly carried me round into chamberlain street. ”



55.93 The note of Margaret Deery’s recollections made in 1983 includes the following passage:1

“‘I’ll never forget his face. I can’t forget his face’ – Eleven years on, Peggy Deery, one of the survivors of Bloody Sunday, still remembers the Paratrooper who deliberately shot her from a range of less than 10 feet.

After the initial outburst of firing, Peggy and her friends had run in panic through the Rossville flats carpark and into Chamberlain Street. There she had seen a soldier lift his rifle and point it at her. She threw herself against a Mr Leo Deehan shouting ‘get down, he’s trying to kill us’, when she felt a terrific blow on her leg.

As she lay on the ground, unaware that she had been shot, she was trampled on by the fear-stricken crowd. She could hear someone calling, ‘that woman’s been shot’ and she remembers Michael Kelly and another man crawling towards her and dragging her into a house in Chamberlain Street. Michael Kelly was himself to be murdered less than 10 minutes later. ”




Where Margaret Deery was shot

55.94 As will have been seen from her own statements, Margaret Deery gave conflicting accounts of where she was when she was shot. We do not find this surprising, as she had received a serious wound, as well as later suffering from the results of a transfusion of the wrong blood. According to the map on which she had indicated her approximate position for the RUC, Margaret Deery was about halfway between the corner of the back garden of the southernmost house on the west side of Chamberlain Street and the gap between Block 1 and Block 2 of the Rossville Flats, while in her RUC statement she appeared to be describing running towards “the wee gate at the back of the flats ”. We do not know what Margaret Deery meant by this, though it is possible she meant one of the gaps between the blocks of the Rossville Flats. According to her written statement for the Widgery Inquiry, she was at Chamberlain Street looking at the courtyard of the Rossville Flats. According to her interview with Philip Jacobson, she was standing “just out ” on the waste ground, “where pilot row used to be ”. According to the record of what she said in 1983, she was in Chamberlain Street.

55.95 There is, however, other evidence of where Margaret Deery was when she was shot.

55.96 According to her son Tony Deery, Margaret Deery told him that she had been shot “at the back of Chamberlain Street ”.1 Her daughter Helen Deery confirmed in oral evidence2 that her mother had told her that she had been shot at the back of the Chamberlain Street houses, but had not said where along the line of those houses. However, in the course of Helen Deery’s interview with Stephen Gargan,3 her sister Margie appears to have indicated that her mother was shot beside the back gate of the third house from the south end of Chamberlain Street.


55.97 There is a Sunday Times Insight Team note relating to Margaret Deery:1

“bernard gallagher was standing very close to mrs deerey [sic] when she was hit. he places it as just out from the end gable of chamberlain street where a group of some 20 people were standing. this was the gable nearest the waste ground and mrs deery was standing on his right, nearer the waste ground. gallagher recalls she was instantly picked up by several men and whisked into 33 chamberlain street. ”



55.98 The only witness called Bernard Gallagher known to us gave a NICRA statement and a written statement to this Inquiry,1but mentioned nothing about Margaret Deery. However, there is a Peter Gallagher who gave a written statement to this Inquiry2in which he described seeing a woman shot just beyond the end of the gable wall at the end of Chamberlain Street. In view of the close similarity between this position and that recorded in the Sunday Times note, it seems to us that he must have been the man who gave an account to the Sunday Times Insight Team. His NICRA statement,3so far as it concerns Margaret Deery, records that he was at the gable house at the end of Chamberlain Street with a group of about 20 people when a girl (clearly Margaret Deery) was shot in the thigh beside him and immediately taken to the last house on the east side of Chamberlain Street. Peter Gallagher also gave oral evidence to this Inquiry.4He told us that he was a chronic alcoholic; and although he maintained that this had not affected his memory of Bloody Sunday, we took the view that we should treat his evidence to us with caution and prefer to rely on the accounts that he gave in 1972.





55.99 The note of Margaret Deery’s recollections made in 1983 refers to her seeing a soldier lift his rifle and point it at her, and throwing herself against a Leo Deehan, shouting to him to get down.

55.100 There is a handwritten statement signed by an L Deehan, which seems to us to be an account by the Leo Deehan to whom Margaret Deery referred.1We are not sure when this statement was made, but it was supplied to the Inquiry along with other material dating from 1972 and so is likely to have been made at that time. The Inquiry prepared a typed copy of the statement.2


55.101 According to this statement,1Leo Deehan was heading towards Free Derry Corner when there was a shout that the Army was coming:

“Suddenly a couple of Saracens appeared on the roadway racing towards the flats. All around me people were shouting and trying to hide or run towards the back of the flats. I followed but one of the Saracens headed right up on the waste ground. There was a big pool of water near the middle and I thought I saw a girl go down right in the path of the tank. I raced on. The Saracen seemed to be going one way then the other after people.

All of a sudden soldiers appeared some had helmets some none but I noticed they all carried rifles and not the usual shield & Baton.

I ran close to one tank to avoid being seen, as I got level a soldiers ran round from the other side. I ran at him and believe I pushed him more than punch him he staggered, and looked like losing his gun.

I ran on, I then saw one soldier beating and elderly man with the butt of his rifle. The old man fought gamely, he went down and the soldier tried to bash him with the rifle again. I had stopped and was edging back. I started to run towards the soldier shouting at him.

I saw another appear and raise his gun. He seem to point at me, I faltered and just then a woman ran across my path. She shouted he will shoot you and, I believe she pushed me, it was like a bad dream and I must have been all tensed up for I know I lost my balance. At that second I heard the same type of sharp shot I had heard earlier. It made me jump for it was much closer, and I just noticed the soldiers rifle move or something made me look at him, as I started to run in the opposite direction.

Then I heard a fellow close by calling she is shot. It was then I noticed the woman that had pushed me was lying on the ground bleeding. I thought she had been hit by a rubber bullet. I ran back and grabbed her and pulled her toward the cover of the wall. The fellow reached her and we two carried her across to Nelis’s House on Chamberlain St. ”


55.102 In our view this account shows that Leo Deehan was in the area where William John Doherty was being arrested, ie at or close to the position described by Peter Gallagher.

55.103 We have also considered the evidence of a number of other witnesses in seeking to establish where Margaret Deery was shot.1


55.104 However, these witnesses either did not see Margaret Deery until after she had been picked up, or were uncertain about whether or not they had done so, or gave only an imprecise account of where she had fallen; though one of them, Brian McGee,1while he only saw Margaret Deery being carried, described what he saw in the following terms:

“A youngish looking woman, who looked to be about 18 or 20, was then carried around the gable end, close to where I was standing. She was being carried by two men, one of whom was holding her under her knees and the other was holding her by the shoulders. ”


55.105 This evidence indicates to us that Margaret Deery was shot, not on the very corner of the garden wall of the houses in Chamberlain Street, but at a point further to the north-east of that corner.

55.106 We have also considered the evidence of Charles McCarron,1who in a NICRA statement recorded seeing a woman shot in front of him as he was walking home along Chamberlain Street. His description of what then happened demonstrates that the woman was Margaret Deery, but in view of the other evidence discussed above, the location cannot in our view be right, unless by walking home along Chamberlain Street Charles McCarron meant walking along the backs of the Chamberlain Street houses facing the Eden Place waste ground, in which case his account would be consistent with the other evidence that Margaret Deery was in that area when she was shot.

55.107 The representatives of the majority of represented soldiers submitted that the account John Tyre gave to this Inquiry1of seeing a girl with a leg wound being lifted off the ground in Chamberlain Street as he ran towards the car park, was (in the absence of any suggestion that she had been put down on the ground and then picked up again) “inconsistent with her having been shot anywhere other than in Chamberlain Street itself ”.2We do not know whether Margaret Deery was put down and picked up again in Chamberlain Street. Billy Gillespie told us, in his written statement to this Inquiry,3that he saw her on the ground surrounded by a crowd of people when he was in Chamberlain Street. In his oral evidence,4he described her position as “more in to the waste ground to the High Flats at the bottom ... of Chamberlain Street ”. It may be this incident that John Tyre saw. We do know that she was taken to 33 Chamberlain Street, the southernmost house on the east side of that street. In our view, in the light of the evidence discussed above, Margaret Deery was not shot in Chamberlain Street.

55.108 We conclude, on the basis of the material we have considered, that Margaret Deery was shot somewhere near the corner of the garden of 36 Chamberlain Street, probably a matter of feet to the north or north-east of that corner. This position is marked in red on the map below

55.109 We note at this point that the representatives of the majority of represented soldiers observed in their submissions that:1

“The fact that Mrs Deery managed to name three different people as being the man next to her when she was shot, is even more strange, as it will be recalled that she told the Sunday Times’ Insight Team that she ‘doesn’t know who he was’. ”



55.110 The three different people to whom this submission referred were the man named in the Sunday Times note discussed above1as “Bernard Gallagher ”, Billy Kelly and Leo Deehan.



55.111 As Counsel to the Inquiry pointed out,1this criticism of the accounts given by Margaret Deery is misconceived. Margaret Deery did not say that “Bernard Gallagher ” was standing next to her. The note that contains his name2accompanies Philip Jacobson’s record of the account given by Margaret Deery,3but it is clear from its terms that it is a note of information provided not by Margaret Deery but by “Bernard Gallagher ” himself. As explained above, we believe that “Bernard Gallagher ” was in fact Peter Gallagher. As to Billy Kelly, this name appears in a further note made by a Sunday Times journalist,4which records Billy Kelly’s account of Margaret Deery rushing over and pushing him out of the way as a soldier was about to shoot him. As the journalist noted, “mrs deery puts it somewhat differently ”. As to Leo Deehan, the fact that Margaret Deery gave this name in 1983 is in no way inconsistent with the fact that when she was in hospital in February 1972 she did not then know who the man was.



When Margaret Deery was shot

55.112 Margaret Deery herself, as can be seen from her accounts that we have set out above,1consistently stated that she had been shot after the Army vehicles had come into Sector 2 and soldiers had disembarked. Leo Deehan and Peter Gallagher gave evidence to the same effect, as did many of the other witnesses to whom we have referred. Peter Gallagher’s NICRA account2was in the following terms:

“From Harvey Street I could see a soldier at Quinn’s Lane, and Saracens in Rossville Street. The soldier was armed with a rifle which he was pointing in our direction. I panicked, and ran as fast as I could towards the flats. When I reached the end of Chamberlain Street I could hear rifle fire from the direction of Rossville Street. I headed for the kiosk at the junction of two blocks of flats. As I ran I saw one of the crowd in front fall. When I saw the blood on his chest I realised he had been shot, and ran back the way I had come to the gable-house at the end of Chamberlain Street, where about twenty other people were standing. As we tried to discover where the shooting was coming from and wich [sic] way to get away from it a girl was shot beside me. She had been shot in the back of the thigh, was picked up instantly and taken to the last house on the left hand side of Chamberlain Street (coming from William Street). ”




55.113 In our view, Peter Gallagher witnessed the shooting of Jackie Duddy, followed quite soon by Margaret Deery falling from a gunshot wound in the thigh. The fact that Peter Gallagher thought that Margaret Deery had been shot in the back of the thigh, whereas the entry wound was in the front, is in our view explicable on the basis that, as will have been noted from the medical evidence to which we have referred above,1the wound at the back of her thigh was much more extensive than that at the front.



55.114 Other evidence suggests that Margaret Deery was shot at the same time as, or very soon after, the arrest of William John Doherty. As will have been seen from the account of Leo Deehan that we have set out above,1he referred to a soldier beating an elderly man just before Margaret Deery pushed him and was shot. In our view that elderly man was almost certainly William John Doherty.



55.115 According to John Barry’s interview note,1 Neil McLaughlin told him that Margaret Deery fell shortly after he had seen an old man emerge from behind the APC in the entrance to the car park of the Rossville Flats, having been lifted by a soldier from (as Neil McLaughlin was sure although he could not see) the doorway at the north end of Block 1. The soldier was beating the man over the head and leading him into the waste ground, presumably to the other APC. Neil McLaughlin told John Barry that Margaret Deery had fallen after the soldiers had fired. Neil McLaughlin’s description of the old man seems to us to be an account of William John Doherty being arrested and taken towards Lieutenant N’s APC. In oral evidence2 Neil McLaughlin said that he now had no recollection of this incident.



55.116 We should draw attention at this point to the fact that Billy Gillespie and Patrick McDaid gave accounts to the effect that it was after Margaret Deery had been shot and taken into 33 Chamberlain Street that Jackie Duddy was shot.

55.117 According to a note made by Peter Pringle of the Sunday Times Insight Team,1 Billy Gillespie “helped to carry mrs deery into 33 chamberlain st with michael bridge. went with bridge into the car park between the flats and saw duddy shot. ” However, in his written statement to this Inquiry,2 Billy Gillespie told us that he “did not see Duddy shot ”, and in oral evidence3 he said: “I cannot recall young Duddy getting shot. ” In these circumstances we consider that no reliance can be placed on Billy Gillespie’s original account of seeing Jackie Duddy shot a significant period after Margaret Deery had been shot and carried away.




55.118 According to his accounts Patrick McDaid also helped to carry Margaret Deery into 33 Chamberlain Street, and after he had left the house he saw a man shot as he ran from the west gable end of that street towards the gap between Blocks 1 and 2 of the Rossville Flats.1 However, as appears from these accounts, Patrick McDaid did not know at the time that the man was Jackie Duddy, but only afterwards learned his name. Since, from the evidence we have discussed above,2 we are sure that Jackie Duddy was shot soon after the soldiers had arrived and that Margaret Deery was probably shot soon after Jackie Duddy, we take the view that Patrick McDaid’s (second-hand) identification of the man he saw as Jackie Duddy cannot be correct. It is possible that the man Patrick McDaid saw was in fact Michael Bridge, another of the Sector 2 casualties whose shooting is discussed later in this report.3




Whether a soldier shot Margaret Deery

55.119 We now turn to the submission made by the representatives of the majority of the represented soldiers that Margaret Deery may have been shot as or before the soldiers deployed down Rossville Street and before any of them fired, from which it would follow that she must have been wounded by a paramilitary gunman.1


55.120 In our view this submission cannot be sustained. It involves a wholesale rejection of the evidence to which we have already referred, including the accounts Margaret Deery herself gave. As to the witnesses whose evidence is said to provide “persuasive ” support for it,1 we would make the following observations.



55.121 We have already considered1 the account given to this Inquiry by George Nelis,2 and for the reasons we have given we are of the view that it would be unwise to rely on his account as evidence that there was firing before or as the soldiers came into the Bogside. In any event his account does not contain anything to suggest that Margaret Deery was wounded at this stage.


55.122 Martin McGuinness told us that as he walked across the car park from Chamberlain Street towards the passage between Blocks 1 and 2 of the Rossville Flats he saw some distance away to his left a woman being carried by a group of men across the car park.1 He said that he “had heard no shots being fired ” at this stage,2 nor had he seen any soldiers or any Army vehicles in the Bogside.3 He also told us that he only learned later that the woman was Margaret Deery and he said that his recollection of the circumstances was “an area where I am not speaking with 100 per cent certainty ”.4 For reasons given elsewhere in this report5 we are of the view that Martin McGuinness probably did see Margaret Deery, but that this was at a later stage and after soldiers had opened fire.




55.123 We have considered above1 and rejected Billy Gillespie’s evidence that Margaret Deery was shot a significant time before Jackie Duddy. In his written statement to this Inquiry,2 this witness told us that as he ran down Chamberlain Street, although he did not see the soldiers shooting, he heard live rounds and saw people falling on the Eden Place waste ground before he saw Margaret Deery. In his oral evidence he said that it was just rubber bullets that he had heard.3 However, even on his oral account, there must have been the shot that hit Margaret Deery, as according to him he then saw her lying on the ground. We are of the view that Billy Gillespie’s evidence falls far short of establishing that Margaret Deery was shot before the soldiers had arrived in Sector 2.