A WOMAN who was injured in the Claudy bombing that killed nine people and injured more than 30 has welcomed a move by the North’s Historical Enquiries Team to contact the families about a review of the massacre.
The team, which is responsible for investigating over 3,000 killings in the Troubles up to 1998, issued a statement yesterday offering to meet the families to ask them if they wished to become involved in a review of the case.
The team issued its statement on foot of this week’s report by the North’s Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson which found that at the time of the bombing in 1972, the RUC failed to act on high-grade intelligence that Fr James Chesney was one of the Claudy bombers.
The ombudsman also found that there was contact involving the police, the then northern secretary William Whitelaw and the then Catholic cardinal William Conway, and that following a meeting between Mr Whitelaw and the cardinal, Fr Chesney was transferred from Co Derry to a parish in Co Donegal.
Mary Hamilton, an Ulster Unionist councillor in Derry city, who was injured in the bombing and who still has shrapnel in one of her legs, said she hoped something positive would emerge from the review team’s focus on the case. She said she still suffers pain from her injuries.
She was certain the families would co-operate with the review. “I would welcome anything that would answer some questions and help the families. There are so many unanswered questions and if a review would bring any light, I would welcome it,” she said.
