Northern Ireland’s Police Ombudsman said in a report today the RUC, the British government and the Catholic Church protected a Catholic priest allegedly involved in the 1972 IRA Claudy bombings.Al Hutchinson’s report, released today, endorses the allegation that at the time the RUC had top-grade intelligence that Fr James Chesney was a senior figure in the IRA gang that planted three bombs in the Co Derry village on July 31st, 1972.
Nine people – five Catholics and four Protestants – died and 30 were injured after the no-warning car bombs exploded along the main street of Claudy. Three of the victims were children.
No one was ever convicted for the bombings which happened on the same day as British troops stormed republican areas of Derry in Operation Motorman.
The IRA did not admit the attack, although no one has ever seriously questioned that it was responsible. It attempted to issue a warning from nearby Dungiven, but was unable to do so because one of its bombings had damaged the telephone exchanges.
The report says Fr Chesney was transferred to a parish in Co Donegal following secret talks between the then northern secretary William Whitelaw and the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal William Conway.
He was never again appointed to a parish in Northern Ireland. The report says he regularly travelled across the Border but was never arrested, questioned or further investigated by the RUC in connection with the Claudy bombings or other terrorist activity. He died in 1980 aged 46.
In December 2002, former PSNI assistant chief constable Sam Kinkaid, who reviewed the original RUC investigation, admitted there were serious deficiencies in that investigation and said the RUC were made aware of the talks. Mr Kinkaid did not name Fr Chesney.
Mr Kinkaid apologised to the bereaved for how the police handled the investigation. His claims prompted the long-running investigation by the Police Ombudsman. The thrust of Mr Kinkaid’s allegations are backed up by Mr Hutchinson’s report.
Mr Hutchinson’s officers examined diaries belonging to Dr Conway which confirmed contact with him and Mr Whitelaw over Fr Chesney and correspondence between the RUC, which was led by chief constable Sir Graham Shillington, and the British government.
Findings in Mr Hutchinson’s report disclosed:
- Detectives believed Fr Chesney was the IRA’s director of operations in south Derry and was a prime suspect in the Claudy attack and other terrorist incidents.
- A detective’s request to arrest the cleric was refused by an assistant chief constable of RUC Special Branch who instead said “matters are in hand”.
- The same senior officer wrote to the government about what action could be taken to “render harmless a dangerous priest” and asked if the matter could be raised with the Church’s hierarchy.
- In December 1972, Mr Whitelaw met Dr Conway to discuss the issue. According to a Northern Ireland Office official, “the cardinal said he knew the priest was a very bad man and would see what could be done”. The church leader mentioned “the possibility of transferring him to Donegal...”
- In response to this memo, RUC chief constable Sir Graham noted: “I would prefer a transfer to Tipperary.”
- An entry in Dr Conway’s diary on December 5th, 1972 confirmed a meeting with Mr Whitelaw took place and stated there had been “a rather disturbing tete-a-tete at the end about C”.
- In another diary entry two months later, the cardinal noted that he had discussed the issue with Fr Chesney’s superior and that “the superior however had given him orders to stay where he was on sick leave until further notice”.
Mr Hutchinson said there was no evidence that the police had information that could have prevented the attack. However, he said the RUC’s decision to ask the British government to resolve the matter with the Church, and then accept the outcome, was wrong.
“The decision failed those who were murdered, injured and bereaved in the bombing,” he said. “The police officers who were working on the investigation were also undermined.”
Mr Hutchinson said the decisions made must be considered in the context of the time. “I accept that 1972 was one of the worst years of the Troubles and that the arrest of a priest might well have aggravated the security situation,” he said.
“Equally, I consider that the police failure to investigate someone they suspected of involvement in acts of terrorism could, in itself, have had serious consequences.”
As regards the role of Church and State officials, Mr Hutchinson said his investigation found no evidence of criminal intent on the part of any British government minister or official or any official of the Catholic Church.
“The morality or ‘rightness’ of the decision taken by the government and the Catholic Church in agreeing to the RUC request is another matter entirely and requires further public debate,” he said. “Placing this information in the public domain in a transparent manner enables that debate to take place.”
The Ombudsman said he was confident such an episode would never happen again. “Rigorous procedural laws, checks and balances, media scrutiny and offices such as that of the Police Ombudsman would ensure that similar actions could not occur without proper accountability,” he said.
The Police Ombudsman said the decision by the RUC not to investigate someone they suspected of involvement in terrorism was “contrary to a fundamental duty of police” to investigate those suspected of criminality. “Had the senior police officers involved been alive today, their actions would have demanded explanation which would have been the subject of further investigation,” he said.
In a joint statement this afternoon, the Catholic Primate of All-Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady and the Bishop of Derry Dr Séamus Hegarty acknowledged that the Claudy bombing was an “appalling crime”.
They said they accepted the report's findings but denied the Church was involved in a cover-up.
“As the Ombudsman finds in his statement today, the Church was approached by the secretary of state at the instigation of senior members of the RUC. Furthermore, the Church subsequently reported back to the secretary of state the outcome of its questioning of Fr Chesney into his alleged activities,” they said.
“The actions of Cardinal Conway or any other Church authority did not prevent the possibility of future arrest and questioning of Fr Chesney.”
Dr Brady later said the incident put the church in an impossible situation and that he could not from a distance judge if the church had handled the matter correctly. In an interview with RTÉ Radio, he said such an incident would almost certainly be handled differently now.
Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson said the British government was “profoundly sorry” that Fr Chesney’s role in the bombings was not properly investigated and that the victims and their families had been denied justice.SIC: IT