Shock TV claims: Ian Paisley funded reservoir bombing
CLAIMS that Reverend Ian Paisley funded a Loyalist bomb attack on a reservoir which threatened the water supply to Belfast are to be aired by the BBC.
The programme will show archive footage of Martin McGuinness showing a gun to children.
Northern Ireland’s former first and deputy first ministers, both dead, are featured in the first of a seven-part series marking the 50th anniversary of the start of the Troubles.
BBC Northern Ireland’s Spotlight On The Troubles: A Secret History, uses clips of unseen footage, formerly classified documents and new testimony.
The first instalment, presented by Darragh MacIntyre, traces the escalating unrest between Protestants and Catholics in the late 1960s and the birth of the civil rights movement.
It examines attempts by then Presenter Darragh MacIntyre Ulster prime minister Terence O’Neill to end discriminatory practices against fierce opposition from Rev Paisley.
In the programme David Hancock, a former soldier, claims a police officer told him that Rev Paisley supplied funding for the bomb on the Silent Valley reservoir, which was the main water supply for Belfast.
The blast was one of a series carried out by Loyalists between March and April 1969 targeting water and electricity installations.
The attacks were initially blamed on the IRA.
Rev Paisley was in prison at the time of the Silent Valley bomb on April 21, 1969 for organising an illegal counter-demonstration.
Mr O’Neill resigned following the resulting political crisis.
The programme also features a previously classified government document which reveals how the Rev Paisley’s speeches and sermons were recorded in a bid to prosecute him, as well as police records which drew links between him and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) paramilitary group.
Rev Paisley, who died in 2014, strongly denied any link with any paramilitary group. Reverend Ivan Foster, a colleague of Rev Paisley at that time, distanced the movement against Mr O’Neill from Loyalist violence, telling the programme that, while men from the UVF may have attended their protests, acts of violence were wrong.
The Spotlight programme also shines new light on the late Mr McGuinness’s involvement with the IRA. Mr McGuinness admitted to being a member while giving evidence to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.
The programme shows archive footage of the IRA assembling a car bomb in Londonderry.
Former IRA member Shane Paul O’Doherty identifies a man walking in the clip as Mr McGuinness. He is also seen sitting in a car showing a gun to children.
The arrival of the British Army in Northern Ireland to relieve a riotweary Royal Ulster Constabulary is also explored in the 90-minute programme.
Presenter Mr MacIntyre said: “I have no illusions, a huge distance has yet to be travelled before anyone gets anything like the full story of what happened here.” ●●Spotlight On The Troubles: A Secret History will be shown on BBC Four on Tuesday at 8.30pm.