Claudy tragedy echoes Omagh outrage
The violence in the North reached its bloody height in 1972 – and even the sleepy village of Claudy was plunged right into the mayhem.
At a time when the public was becoming horribly accustomed to almost daily murders by loyalist and republican paramilitaries, this bomb attack plumbed new depths.
The strike – which had horrible similarities to the Omagh atrocity a quarter of a century later – killed nine people and ripped a rural community apart.
Children and adults, Protestants and Catholics were all among the victims.
In the aftermath the coroner who oversaw the inquests said: “This was sheer, unadulterated, cold, calculated, fiendish murder.”
Even though the IRA were widely believed to have planted the three separate devices, the organisation denies any involvement to this day.
The first car bomb exploded without warning outside McElhinney’s bar on the Main Street, killing three people instantly and fatally wounding another three.
As police moved in a second device was discovered in the back of a van at the post office.
Officers immediately began to evacuate the area by moving people towards the Beaufort Hotel.
But unknown to them a third bomb had been left in a vehicle parked outside.
Just like the tragic events in Omagh, the public were unwittingly being shepherded closer to danger rather than to safety.
Shortly after the first bomb went off a woman went into the Royal Ulster Constabulary station in the nearby town of Dungiven and said she had been asked to tell police three bombs had been planted in Claudy.
By the time officers on the ground were informed the second device had been found.
But the third device did explode, killing another three people.
A detective told the inquest that the terrorists had tried to telephone through a warning from Dungiven, but the phone box was out of order because of bomb damage to the exchange.
Another attempt to alert people was made by informing shop assistants in the town, but crucial time was lost because one of them had to deliver the warning to police in person because the phone lines were down.
The officer told the inquest: “By this time the warning was too late, for the first bomb had exploded and the other two bombs went off as the warning was being passed by the Dungiven police.”
The people who died as a result of the Claudy bombing were: Elizabeth McElhinney, 59; Joseph McCluskey, 39; Kathryn Eakin, nine; David Miller, 60; James McLelland, 65; William Temple, 16; Rose McLaughlin, 52; Patrick Connolly, 15; Arthur Hone, 38.
