INQ 1873 (Bloody Sunday Inquiry)

INQ 1873 was the designation given to a witness at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry who gave evidence anonymously.

A submission by counsel to the inquiry described his role in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s as follows:

2.1 Lieutenant Colonel INQ 1873 was sent to Northern Ireland in October 1970 in order to run the Information Liaison Department. He was an expert in psychological operations in combat situations [Day 242/7] and was responsible for psychological operations in Northern Ireland under the direction of the CLF [Day 242/52]. In or about September 1971 the Information Liaison Department was disbanded and replaced by the Information Policy Unit.

2.2 Colonel Tugwell arrived in Northern Ireland on 30 August 1971 to become head of the Information Policy Unit. INQ 1873 was appointed his deputy. Tugwell said that he was sent to Northern Ireland at short notice because, so General Carver told him, there was a crisis in confidence about Army public relations [Day 240/60].

A statement by Maurice Tugwell to the inquiry confirmed that INQ 1873 'had been the head of the Army Psychological Operations branch at the Joint Warfare Establishment at Old Sarum' and 'a PsyOps specialist.'

According to Paul Foot in his book Who Framed Colin Wallace:

In 1970 on the orders of the Ministry of Defence, the information department of the Army in Northern Ireland was reorganised. Tony Staughton remained in charge of public relations, with Colin and Colonel Yarnold in support. side by side, a new unit was set up entitled Information Liaison - later Information Policy - commanded by a military officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel. The first of these was Lieutenant Colonel Johnny Johnston. He was swiftly replaced by a hard-line paratroop officer, Colonel Maurice Tugwell. Information Policy was a separate unit working for the intelligence services but expected to operate under the cover of public relations. Its function was psychological warfare.