A Dundalk priest has spoken of his distress at the hate mail and hostile phone calls he received from some parishioners after it emerged that he had received a distraught phone call from Ms Bernadette Sands McKevitt days after the Omagh bombing.
Canon Desmond Campbell was loudly applauded during 6.30 p.m. Mass on Saturday in the village of Blackrock after he spoke out about the Omagh bombing and his conversation with Ms Sands McKevitt, vice-chairwoman of the 32-County Sovereignty Movement, and her husband, Mr Michael McKevitt.
He told parishioners in Blackrock, where the couple live, he was "terribly hurt by the fact that people had misunderstood that I was backing up these people, concerning whom there has been a great deal of suspicion." He said yesterday he had played a small part "in making sure there was not going to be a riot outside their [the McKevitts'] house".
