Catholic priest's involvement in bombing covered up by British deep state

[Jan Klimkowski]

More on McGuinness changing his story....

The Irish Times - Thursday, September 9, 2010

McGuinness reveals he met Fr Chesney

THE NORTH’S Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness told yesterday of how he met Fr James Chesney shortly before his death but that he knew nothing of the allegations that the priest was one of the Claudy bombers.

Mr McGuinness said while he was in the IRA in Derry city in 1972 he did not know who carried out the attack and still didn’t know.

The Claudy bombing happened on July 31st, 1972, killing nine people and injuring over 30. It happened on the same day as Operation Motorman, a major British army manoeuvre to clear no-go areas in Derry.

It was viewed as a diversionary tactic by the IRA at the time, even though the IRA has never formally admitted it was responsible for the three car bombs that exploded in the south Co Derry village which is 10 miles from Derry city.

Last month the North’s Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson endorsed the allegation that at the time the RUC had high-level intelligence that Fr Chesney was one of the bombers.

He also reported how the RUC was in contact with former Northern secretary William Whitelaw and former Catholic primate Cardinal William Conway about the allegations and that Fr Chesney was transferred out of Derry to a parish in Donegal and that he was never arrested by police about the bombing.

The DUP MP for East Derry Gregory Campbell, several other politicians and some of the bereaved and injured in the Claudy attack, including Ulster Unionist Derry city councillor Mary Hamilton, have challenged Mr McGuinness to be forthcoming about the bombing.

In 2002 in an interview with BBC’s Spotlight programme Mr McGuinness said he never met Fr Chesney. But he said yesterday that shortly before Fr Chesney’s death from cancer in 1980 the priest asked to see him.

“When I met Fr Chesney . . . I was unaware at that time of the allegations against him,” he said.

“I was asked to visit him as someone who was dying and was a republican sympathiser. Sadly I have had many such meetings over the years. The Claudy attack or the IRA were not discussed in our conversation,” added Mr McGuinness.

“There was no discussion whatsoever about IRA actions of any description. It was basically a political discussion on his strong views that Ireland should be united,” he said.

“In 2002 I gave my statement to the BBC in good faith. It is only recently that in the controversy surrounding the publication of the ombudsman’s report and the allegations from RUC sources about Fr Chesney that I was reminded of my visit to him shortly before his death. That is the only contact I ever had with Fr Chesney,” he said.

Mr McGuinness said he was aware that there was a public perception that the IRA was behind the Claudy attack but that he didn’t know who was responsible. “I was in Derry city at the time of the move by the British army into the city and that was on the same day as the Claudy bomb,” he said.

“I was very angry when I heard that a number of bombs had exploded in Claudy and that innocent people had been killed and I think those people in Claudy are entitled to the truth,” he added.

He said the IRA in Derry city “played no part” in the bombing. He also met “two very senior members of the IRA in Dublin” at the time. “I asked was the IRA involved in the Claudy bomb and they told me no, and it has been a mystery ever since.”

Mr McGuinness said he was sympathetic to the view of the former Catholic bishop of Derry, Dr Edward Daly, who expressed scepticism about whether the priest was implicated. The perception about the IRA and Fr Chesney could have arisen from information put out by the RUC, he suggested.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/irel...14977.html

Meanwhile Gerry Adams defends McGuinness for changing his account:

Adams defends McGuinness over Claudy priest meeting

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has defended Martin McGuinness over his recollections of a meeting with a priest alleged to have been involved in the Claudy bombings.

In 2002, Mr McGuinness told the BBC he had never met Father James Chesney.

On Wednesday the deputy first minister said he now recalled going to the priest's deathbed in 1980.

Mr Adams said Mr McGuinness had been honest about his memories.

He added that his colleague could have kept "schtum" on the issue and that the deputy first minister had issued the statement saying he had met Fr Chesney "of his own volition".

"It is not a sin or a crime or offence to forget a meeting," he said.

"The statement Martin issued at some point in the past saying he had never met Father Chesney in my opinion was released in good faith - why otherwise would he deny it?

"When he remembered, it was he who came forward, he told me that he was going to put out the statement.

"He told me it was because of the appeal from the families on the back of the recent report (Claudy bomb report).

"Martin was out of the country on holiday when the report was released and he told me when he returned that as soon as he got the first opportunity he was going to add his voice on this issue in support of the families' right to the truth."

Earlier this week, Mr McGuinness said that in his meeting with Fr Chesney, the priest had talked about his support for a united Ireland, but did not mention the 1972 Claudy bombings, which killed nine people.

"I never knew Fr Chesney before Claudy; I never knew Fr Chesney for many years after the bombing," he said.

"I was told he was a republican sympathiser; would I go and see him and meet with him in County Donegal?"

In 2002, Mr McGuinness issued a statement to BBC Northern Ireland current affairs programme Spotlight, saying: "I have never met Father Chesney, nor do I have any knowledge of him other than from media reports."

On Thursday, the son of a man killed in the Claudy bombings said he did not believe Mr McGuinness has told the whole truth.

Gordon Miller, whose father David was killed in the bombings, also said he did not want to meet the Sinn Fein MP.

'Not guilty'

Mr Adams said those "bereaved through the conflict" were entitled to say "anything they want on these issues", but it was a different matter for political representatives.

He said he supported a "truth recovery process" in Northern Ireland and said Fr Chesney was "not guilty" and was not able to respond to the allegations made against him.

The Police Ombudsman said last month that the police, the Catholic Church and the state conspired to cover up Fr Chesney's suspected role the no-warning car bomb, one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles.

The investigation found high-level talks led to Fr Chesney, a suspect in the attack, being moved to the Irish Republic.

No action was ever taken against Fr Chesney, who detectives believed was the IRA's 'director of operations' in south County Londonderry. He died of cancer in 1980 at the age of 46.

No paramilitary group has ever claimed responsibility for the Claudy bombings, and no-one has been convicted of them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11258549