Mayor backs calls for inquiry into bombing
A Sinn Féin mayor today backed calls for a public inquiry into one of the worst IRA atrocities during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Limavady mayor Ann Brolly said it was important the truth was established about the killing of nine people in the Claudy bomb attack in Co Derry.
Last October the Police Service of Northern Ireland announced it was reopening the investigation into the July 1972 massacre following claims that a Catholic priest was involved.
There have been claims that the authorities covered up the involvement of Father James Chesney in the triple bomb attack, with a meeting taking place between Catholic Cardinal William Conway and the then Northern Ireland Secretary William Whitelaw.
Fr Chesney died of cancer in 1980.
A letter sent to Ulster Unionist councillor Mary Hamilton in Derry also claimed Fr Chesney confessed his role in the bombings to another priest.
Limavady councillors last night backed a motion calling for a judicial inquiry from independent unionist Boyd Douglas and seconded by Mrs Brolly.
The Sinn Féin mayor said she felt “what happened in Claudy was a grievous wrong”.
“If we can get at the truth and bring succour to the families in Claudy, then I certainly wanted to support the motion and I think it was wholeheartedly and unanimously supported in the council chamber.”
Mrs Brolly is the second member of her party to accept there was an argument for a public inquiry.
Sinn Fein chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said in a radio interview last December that the families of those killed had as much a right to establish the truth as relatives of those shot dead on Bloody Sunday.
