One of the IRA'S chief bomb makers in 1972 has told the Saville inquiry that the organisation was under orders not to engage with soldiers on Bloody Sunday.
Former Belfast Sinn Féin councillor Sean Keenan – a native of Derry – is one of several former Provisional IRA men to make statements to the Saville inquiry. While his submitted statement has yet to be discussed by the inquiry, it has been seen by the Irish News.
Another former member, Eddie Dobbins from the Creggan section of the IRA, has also testified that he was under orders not to engage with the British army but to remain in Creggan on Bloody Sunday in case there was an incursion by soldiers.
Mr Keenan has told the tribunal he was a volunteer in the Bogside at the time.
"On the Saturday afternoon or evening I was approached by a member of the Provisional IRA Command Staff in Derry and told that there would be no military action on the day, a decision with which I fully agreed," he said.
"It was a sensible decision and once that was out of the way I was able to go on the march in my individual capacity."
He also claimed that it was decided after the Bloody Sunday killings that there should be no military action by the IRA until after the victims' funerals had taken place.
"Many people realised that day that the peaceful ways had died on the streets of Derry," he said.
"People were thinking that maybe we had got it right after all."
Much of Mr Keenan's written statement is devoted to evidence provided by Paddy Ward, a former self-confessed member of the Fianna (IRA youth wing) who claimed that Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness was present when he was handed detonators for nail bombs to be used on Bloody Sunday.
Mr Keenan said Mr Ward's claim that his younger brother, Colm Keenan was Bogside explosives officer was wrong as he held this position. He said: "I certainly never gave Paddy Ward any explosives."
He also outlined details of his brother's death – who was shot dead on March 14 1972 along with fellow IRA man, Eugene McGillan.
One of the most high profiles shootings in Derry at the time, the two were killed by a detachment of British officers who came into the Bogside on the last day of the Widgery Inquiry. The army claimed they shot Mr Keenan dead because he was involved in a gun battle with them.
