FORMER IRA CHIEF SAVES PARA'S LIFE By Jilly Beattie   Sinn Fein negotiator Gerry Kelly helped save the life of an Army Paratrooper during a riot, it emerged yesterday. The former IRA chief scrambled over protesters to reach the soldier who was being beaten by a mob on Monday. Kelly, pictured above, suffered a broken hand when he stood as a barrier between the injured squaddie and the angry crowd at Ardoyne, North Belfast. And he stayed there until the soldier’s 3-Para colleagues dragged him to safety as violence raged around them. Kelly was later treated in hospital and his hand put in a sling. One witness said: “A few of the soldiers were getting a hammering. They’d been isolated from their mates and one was on the ground. Gerry Kelly somehow managed to scramble over the crowd like Crocodile Dundee and stood like a barrier between the soldier and the rioters. I don’t know how he did it. “It was chaos out there and that soldier could have been killed if it hadn’t been for Kelly.” Kelly’s swift action will be frowned upon by many in republican circles and some youths booed him. Sinn Fein’s North Belfast MLA has been regarded as one of party’s most hard-line republican activists. FLASHPOINT: Ardoyne protestors riot He was sentenced to life for being a member of the IRA gang who bombed the Old Bailey and Scotland Yard in 1973. Along with the Price sisters, Marian and Dolores, he was convicted of the bombing which killed one person and injured more than 250. Kelly served 19 years in prison, despite escaping and being returned to jail from his hideaway in Holland. DUP leader Ian Paisley was astonished by Kelly’s concern for the Para. He said: “It would appear he helped save a soldier’s life. It’s incredible considering his well-publicised feelings about the British Army.” The Army yesterday launched an investigation into how rioters were able to isolate a number of soldiers and loot a radio, maps and flak jackets from a Land Rover.    Top