HOW INJUSTICE - MURDER ALWAYS INSPIRES REVENGE 
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     Bloody Sunday Inquiry 
     Former IRA man recalls
     shootings 

             Hunger strike veteran says army action on fateful day
             in 1972 was catalyst for him joining Provisionals as a
             teenager 

     Rosie Cowan, Ireland correspondent
     Friday September 6, 2002
     The Guardian 

     Former hunger striker Raymond McCartney yesterday told the
     Bloody Sunday inquiry how the 1972 British army shootings in
     his home town Derry were the catalyst for him joining the
     Provisional IRA as a 17-year-old. 

     Mr McCartney, now a republican icon, was an IRA commander
     in the Maze prison when he spent 53 days on the aborted 1980
     hunger strike. A year later Bobby Sands and nine other men 
     starved themselves to death seeking political status for 
     republican prisoners. 

     Mr McCartney, now 47, was released from jail in 1994. He was
     arrested in connection with the raid on Castlereagh special
     branch offices but was released without charge. He hopes to
     stand for Sinn Fein in next May's Stormont assembly elections. 

     Yesterday he became the first former IRA member to testify to
     Lord Saville's tribunal into the killing of 14 unarmed Catholic 
     men on January 30 1972. His cousin, Jim Wray, was one of those
     shot dead by soldiers during a civil rights march in Derry's
     Bogside. 

     Mr McCartney went to the January 1972 civil rights march with
     two friends. In his statement he told of the large army presence
     and the feeling something unusual was going to happen. 

     He attended school in the area and had heard gunfire on many
     previous occasions and witnessed frequent riots but denied
     taking part in any. 

     On this occasion, he said, he did not see any civilians with
     weapons of any kind and did not see or hear petrol or nail
     bombs. He heard live gunfire, which he initially assumed to be
     coming from the army, but he could not now be sure. 

     He hid in the stairwell of a block of flats with about 20 other
     people before being ushered to safety by older people. 

     But he said that a few months later he approached a senior
     Derry republican, now dead, about joining the IRA. This man,
     whom he also refused to name, gave him some books about the
     history of the republican movement. He told him to go away and
     think about what exactly was involved, rather than rushing to 
     join out of misplaced romanticism or because his friends were
     doing so. 

     However, a few weeks later he went back to the man and told
     him he wanted to be part of a movement that was going to
     create change in his country. 

     Mr McCartney agreed that while Bloody Sunday was not the only
     factor, it was certainly a turning point in his life. He said
     before that day he "had no concept" he would have joined the IRA. 

     http://www.guardian.co.uk/bloodysunday/article/0,2763,786935,00.html

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