Ex-BBC journalist says covering Bloody Sunday sparked decades-long career

A former BBC Panorama journalist has said covering Bloody Sunday in his 20s inspired his decades-long career.

Peter Taylor, 82, from Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire, subsequently dedicated a large portion of his working life to documenting events in Northern Ireland.

During the Troubles he interviewed republican and loyalist inmates in a notorious prison which he said had not been accessed before, or in the same way since.

He also tracked down and spoke to an MI5 officer who he said was “central to getting the IRA to commit to peace” in a secret mission.

As he was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE), Mr Taylor told the Princess Royal that his first assignment in Northern Ireland was covering Bloody Sunday for ITV’s This Week.

On January 30 1972, British soldiers shot dead 13 civil rights protesters on the streets of Derry.

Speaking to the PA news agency at Windsor Castle on Tuesday, after being honoured for services to journalism and public service broadcasting, he said: “I remember being shocked at what happened and feeling guilty that I knew nothing, or very little, about the background to the conflict.

“I remember that day thinking I better start trying to find out, so I spent the past 50 years trying to do exactly that.”

It took him nearly 10 years of work to get permission to make a documentary inside the high-security Maze Prison housing paramilitaries, which is no longer in operation.

It was otherwise known as Long Kesh and was the site of 1981 hunger strikes.

People serving sentences for murder “and a whole series of dreadful atrocities” were inside, Mr Taylor said, adding that he gained their trust to be interviewed.

The conversations were conducted without prison officers’ oversight, he added.

At Windsor Castle, the former BBC journalist told PA: “In the end, when they saw the film they were glad that they had taken part because it gave a different view of the contribution that they were potentially prepared to make towards peace.

“You know you’ve succeeded when you get that kind of reaction, when they’re clearly expecting to take you to the cleaners for what you’ve done, and they say ‘wasn’t bad for a Brit’.”

He earned the trust of major figures including former IRA commander Martin McGuinness, whose funeral he attended, and Ian Paisley, previous leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), whose memorial he was invited to.

The aim was “to get behind the mask” and that “required them trusting me, but me trusting them to be as straight as they were prepared to be”.

“They knew I had a job to do, so when I asked really difficult questions – which in most cases they tried to answer, they knew that was part of my job – they didn’t take it personally, but they knew what I was trying to do.”

Another major scoop was accessing the “back channel between MI5 and the IRA” leadership.

The security service ran a secret mission designed to “encourage the IRA to stop killing people and engage in the political process”, he said.

The MI5 officer, unearthed by Mr Taylor and his team, was “part and parcel” of that process.

He “flatly denied” working for MI5 when Mr Taylor first approached, but the journalist left his calling card and a book he had written titled The Provos: The IRA And Sinn Fein.

Around 20 years after Mr Taylor first started working on the story, the officer wrote to him and said he had watched his documentary My Journey Through the Troubles.

“He said, if there are any gaps in your knowledge that you would like to sort out, I’m now prepared to talk to you.”

Mr Taylor travelled to interview him on the condition of anonymity.

Fewer programmes like Mr Taylor’s are now made because of lack of funding, he said, adding that his did not attract “huge viewing figures”.

“My worry is that public service broadcasting and the climate in which I grew up and learned my trade is under threat,” he told PA.

“It needs finances. What we do, people like me try and do, is to help people understand and make political choices and pass judgments on these extremely difficult, complex issues.”

The public’s appetite is changing too, he said, adding: “People just grow weary of bombs, mayhem, murder, bad news.”

Young people need to “carry the torch onwards”, which is “a hard ask” because getting jobs and story commissions is increasingly difficult, he said.

Peter Taylor will take part in a special evening of conversation as part of Féile Derry 2025's debates and discussions programme.

Mr Taylor will be joined by former political prisoner, hunger striker and Sinn Féin elected representative Raymond McCartney for an in-depth conversation about the story behind the headlines.

The event will take place on August 11 at 7.00pm at Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin. 

The two men first met in 1990 in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh during the filming of ‘Enemies Within’ - a documentary by Steve Hewlett that featured interviews with both republican and loyalist prisoners.

Raymond McCartney

Peter Taylor has spent over five decades reporting on the conflict in Ireland, documenting the people, the politics, and the long path to peace. 

Tickets for this event are free and can be accessed here:  eventbrite.co.uk/e/peter-taylor-in-conversation-with-raymond-mccartney-tickets-1478091364059

This conversation with Raymond McCartney is one of the key highlights of Féile 2025’s biggest-ever programme, with hundreds of events taking place right across the city from August 6 to 15.

The full programme can be viewed at: feilederry.com/feile-2025