IF IT WAS TRUE THEN...
The BBC reports that Northern Ireland's Police Ombudsman is due to publish his report into the alleged involvement of a priest in a 1972 IRA bombing in County Londonderry. Nine people, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed in the village of Claudy in one of the most controversial incidents of the Troubles.
I covered the topic here. It was such an atrocious act that even writing about it now angers me.
There was an alleged deal between the UK government and the Catholic Church not to arrest Father James Chesney. Fr Chesney was moved across the border to sanctuary as part of this deal and no prosecution ever took place. He died in 1980.Well then, three points to be made here;
1. The Roman Catholic Church needs to offer an apology to the people of Northern Ireland for this wicked sheltering of a mass killer in their ranks. Not just paedos, it appears.
2. Does the Roman Catholic Church have any other things it wants to tell us about those who served in it and the IRA? Was this the ONLY cleric who killed in his spare time?
3. If the British Government colluded THEN to protect Father Chesney, is it possible it is colluding NOW to protect Machine Gun McGuinness - the IRA leader alleged to have given the OK for this despicable operation? Surely not?
Wonder will the BBC and its legions of investigative journalists pursue any of those angles? Just wondering...
The police may have feared that arresting a priest over the Claudy attack could have triggered a fierce backlash among Northern Ireland's minority Catholic population.
A senior police officer wrote in November 1972 that, rather than arrest Chesney, "our masters may find it possible to bring the subject into any conversations they may be having with the Cardinal or Bishops at some future date..."
Government documents showed that, at a private meeting with Whitelaw, Conway "said that he knew that the priest was a very bad man and would see what could be done. The cardinal mentioned the possibility of transferring him to Donegal..." the report said.
In his diary, the cardinal recorded that he had had a "rather disturbing tête-à-tête."
Conway's protection of Chesney echoed action by the Catholic Church in Ireland to shield priests from allegations of child sex abuse. Scandals over the abuse and the cover-ups have helped topple the Church from its once dominant position in Irish life.
The key police officers in the Claudy bombing are now dead but the ombudsman said that had they been alive their actions would have been investigated.
Hutchinson said he found no evidence of criminal intent on the part of the government or the church.
"The morality or 'rightness' of the decision taken by the government and the Catholic Church in agreeing to the RUC (police) request is another matter entirely and requires further public debate," Hutchinson said.
"I am satisfied that the same situation would not be repeated today."
(Writing by Carmel Crimmins; editing by Tim Pearce)
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Report: Cover-up in 1972 N Ireland bombing
DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press Writers, JOHN HEANEY, Associated Press Writers
Published: 08:16 a.m., Tuesday, August 24, 2010
- FILE -- Britain's former Home Secretary Willie Whitelaw, is seen in this Sept. 1, 1981 file photo. File photo dated 1/10/1981 of Willie Whitelaw, the then Home Secretary. A new report in Northern Ireland claimed Tuesday Aug. 24, 2010, that the British government and the Roman Catholic church colluded to cover up the involvement of a priest in a 1972 bombing that killed nine people and injured 30. The Northern Ireland police ombudsman's report said that Father James Chesney was the prime suspect in the blast in the village of Claudy, just outside of Londonderry. The explosion hit the village without the customary warnings that paramilitaries used to limit civilian casualties. Photo: AP / PA
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — The British government and the Roman Catholic church colluded to cover up the suspected involvement of a priest in a 1972 bombing that killed nine people and injured 30, a new report said Tuesday.
The Northern Ireland police ombudsman's report determined that Father James Chesney was the prime suspect in the blast in the village of Claudy, just outside of Londonderry and that the police chose not to pursue him. The Irish Republican Army has been blamed for the attack.
"A senior (police) officer sought the government's assistance in December 1972, through their engagement with senior figures of the Catholic Church, to 'render harmless a dangerous priest,'" the report said.
Despite the suspicions of authorities, the church and U.K. officials struck a deal that allowed Chesney to move to a parish in Ireland where British prosecutors lacked the jurisdiction to investigate him. Police approached the leaders apparently because of fears that arresting a cleric would inflame a tense situation.
About 100 people died in July 1972 — the most violent month that year.
The deal was struck following a meeting between Cardinal William Conway, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland at the time, and Britain's representative in Northern Ireland, William Whitelaw, documents cited by the report said.
Chesney, who died in 1980 after suffering from cancer, had denied involvement in the attack, Conway told Whitelaw, according to the report.
The police at the time believed Chesney to be an IRA member, but the report made no conclusion one way or another about his potential involvement with the group.
However, according to the memo included in the report, a government official who was not named wrote that, "the cardinal said he knew the priest was a very bad man and would see what could be done."
The report is certain to raise more questions about what role — if any — the church may have played during the more than 30 years of violence that claimed 3,600 lives.
The current head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, issued a statement on Tuesday saying it was "shocking that a priest should be involved in such violence."
Brady insisted, however, that "the Catholic Church did not engage in a cover-up of this matter."
"If there was sufficient evidence to link him to criminal activity, he should have been arrested and questioned at the earliest opportunity, like anyone else," he said. "The actions of Cardinal Conway or any other Church authority did not prevent the possibility of future arrest and questioning of (Father) Chesney."
The IRA's political wing — Sinn Fein — said the report didn't go far enough. Though not addressing potential IRA involvement, the group demanded a full inquiry, saying the ombudsman only addressed the police role.
"The families of those who died or were injured there deserve and are entitled to the truth about the deaths of their loved ones," said Francie Molloy, the spokesman for Sinn Fein. "Due to its limited remit (the report) could never deliver the truth about the circumstances surrounding the bomb for the families of those killed."
No one has ever been charged for the attack, which hit the village without the customary warnings that paramilitaries used to limit civilian casualties.
Ombudsman Al Hutchinson's report, which began after new evidence came to light in 2002, comes on the heels of a separate inquiry into the deaths of 13 civilians in Londonderry in the Bloody Sunday massacre.
The Claudy bombing took place only six months after Bloody Sunday during the most violent year in Northern Ireland, when more than 470 died. Catholics and Protestants died in the Claudy attack, including a young girl.
The decision of the church to deal with the problem by transferring the priest suspected of wrongdoing to another parish also offered disturbing echoes of the church's handling of the problem of pedophile priests, many of whom were moved rather than be handed over to authorities for investigation.
Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson said Tuesday that the government was "profoundly sorry."
Some relatives said the apology was not enough and demanded an investigation into issues raised by the police report — perhaps to even prosecute attackers who might still be alive.
Mark Eakin, whose sister Kathryn died in the attack, wondered if there was a conspiracy to hide the truth.
"The Northern Ireland Office couldn't make a decision on this on their own. There's no way William Whitelaw made this decision on his own. It had to come from higher up," he said. "I would like to ask the British government if they would now step in and investigate this thing further.
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