The Claudy bombings and killings of January 31, 1972 and
the inability of the authorities to bring the murderers to
trial has been a festering sore, of hurt and anger, to the
victims of that atrocity, one of like kind in the many for
which no one has been brought to answer for the crimes. Media
disclosures have brought Claudy into focus again and reopened
inquiries into the conduct of prominent people involved in
the affair by office, responsibility or duty. There is the
alleged participation of the Roman Catholic priest, James
Chesney, as the IRA commander and the acceptance of that fact
by William Whitelaw, the NI Secretary, and Cardinal William
Conway, who transferred the priest to a parish in Donegal
in January 1973. He died there in 1980 aged 46, without being
questioned about the horror of Claudy. The alleged collusion
of the police in the cover up is at the core of the case being
investigated by Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kincaid. We
join with those who believe that this search for truth should
be pursued with the same determination, without the cost in
time and money, of the Saville inquiry. There have been charges
of collusion, police and army, with loyalist terrorists. The
collusion over Claudy is of a different kind with the claimed
participation of state, church and police, and horrifying
in the extreme. We are suspicious of people in power and with
good reason.
|
