SINN FÉIN MP MARTIN McGuinness has admitted meeting the priest linked to the Claudy bombing just prior to his death.
A report by the Police Ombudsman last month said that collusion between the RUC, the British government and the Catholic Church had prevented investigators from interrogating Fr James Chesney over his possible involvement in the 1972 Claudy bombings.
In response to the release of the Ombudsman’s report, a spokesperson for Sinn Féin said that the Deputy First Minister McGuinness had never met Chesney.
Today, the BBC reports that McGuinness said he didn’t know Chesney, but was asked to visit him years after the bombing. He said they discussed his nationalist sympathies, but not the bomb attack:
There was no mention whatsoever of the Claudy bomb. During the course of that, he just talked about his support for a united Ireland.
According to the Ombudman’s report, Fr Chesney was an active member of south Derry IRA brigade. McGuinness was the Provisional IRA commander in Derry at the time.
Nine people, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed in three car bombs throughout the village of Claudy, Co Derry, on 31 July, 1972.
Apology
British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg issued a government apology this morning in Westminster for the government’s failure to fully investigate Fr Chesney in the wake of the bomb attack.
Clegg, standing in for David Cameron, said:
The government is profoundly, profoundly sorry that Fr Chesney was not properly investigated for his suspected involvement in this hideous crime at the time, and that the victims and their families have quite simply been denied justice.
He added that although the government acted wrongly in its actions regarding Chesney, the attack was carried out by terrorists.
The families of the victims and survivors of the bombing said they were outraged at the revelation of collusion contained in the Ombudsman’s report, and called for justice as well as an apology from the British government.
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