The BBC reports that Northern Ireland’s Police Ombudsman is due to publish his report into the alleged involvement of a priest in a 1972 IRA bombing in County Londonderry.Nine people, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed in the village of Claudy in one of the most controversial incidents of the Troubles.
I covered the topic here. It was such an atrocious act that even writing about it now angers me.
There was an alleged deal between the UK government and the Catholic Church not to arrest Father James Chesney. Fr Chesney was moved across the border to sanctuary as part of this deal and no prosecution ever took place. He died in 1980.
Well then, three points to be made here;
1. The Roman Catholic Church needs to offer an apology to the people of Northern Ireland for this wicked sheltering of a mass killer in their ranks. Not just paedos, it appears.
2. Does the Roman Catholic Church have any other things it wants to tell us about those who served in it and the IRA? Was this the ONLY cleric who killed in his spare time?
3. If the British Government colluded THEN to protect Father Chesney, is it possible it is colluding NOW to protect Machine Gun McGuinness – the IRA leader alleged to have given the OK for this despicable operation? Surely not?
Wonder will the BBC and its legions of investigative journalists pursue any of those angles? Just wondering…
Difficult one for the Beeboids, this one. The Beeb is sympathetic to the IRA murderers, to the point of ignoring the way it protected known paedophiles in its ranks for decades. The Beeb is deeply hostile to the Catholic church for all kinds of cultural reasons (militant gays, feminists, Islamists tend not to be that keen on any form of Christianity, after all), but also because the church protected known paedophiles in its ranks for decades. So how’s it going to condemn the church without condemning the IRA? Just as there’s a hierarchy of victimhood, there’s a hierarchy of demonisation too, so my guess is that it will emphasise the fact that this evil man was a priest, while downplaying the fact that he was supporting the IRA.
Rueful,
Spot on. The conflicting views are so difficult to hold in the twisted mind of a Beeboid.
Good point made by Malachi ODoherty, click on image to read
Rueful
Good point, a dilemma for the hypocrites.
DV, I would say #3 is a fair question to ask, considering the politics involved.
I was just hearing a few minutes ago on the News Channel that Father Chesney would never have been a killer, although he did admit to “very Republican sympathies”. The BBC was talking to some Irish person who was defending Chesney against the charges. He said this was all part of the awful violence done by the British Armed Forces.
First was Bloody Sunday, where the troops killed people who were “ennocent!” (he shouted the word), then there was another awful assault on ennocents by the troops elsewhere (I forget the location, but he said the Navy had to lend support), then they had this Claudy bombing, and nobody could tell who did it. In any event, he said, the bomb killed people only because the phone was off the hook when the bombers called to give the usual warning to give people a chance to evacuate. So at best, Chesney was an accidental murderer, which surely doesn’t count.
Just now they were talking to Cardinal Brady who defended Chesney and Cardinal Conway. Apparently the Cardinal was “working for truth and justice” and it was up to the police whether or not to arrest Chesney. A pretty weak defense.
Anyway , one thing to celebrate is that Chesney is dead. Good riddance.
Is there a “BBC Ireland”? The News Channel right now is talking to a former BBC correspondent (Dennis Merriott? on a camera feed from Belfast), and the caption with his name read “BBC Ireland”.
David P
The BBC use the republican terms of reference with gay abandon.
I’m not convinced. I’m genuinely not and even so – what kind of priest was he? I find the timing convenient. But un answer to your questions DV; No, yes & yes. Funny old game.
I’ve just been listening to the report on this on Radio 4’s 6pm news and my god they tied themselves up in knots trying to squirm around it. Lots of condemnation of the British Govt and the Catholic church but then lots about how 1972 was a “sensitive” time and how this would have alienated Catholics and proved Unionists right (I kid you not). Oddly no interview appears to have even been attempted with anyone from Sinn Fein who might just know something about this. The cynic in me wonders if the powers that be don’t want us to realise that the current senior people in Sinn Fein might also have been rather active in the IRA of the 1970’s.
The other sad thing about this report was the realisation that I had never heard of this bombing before. Now I live in Northern England well away from these events but I don’t think this bombing has even been mentioned in the national media while I have been an adult. Lots about Bloody Sunday of course but nothing about this.
The only mention of Sinn Fein in the main article on the BBC website is this short paragraph (about half way through):
Sinn Fein, the political party closely indentified with the IRA, said the deaths in Claudy were “wrong and should not have happened.” The party repeated its call for an independent international truth commission.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11077333
“Sinn Fein, the political party closely indentified with the IRA”!! Very closely identified!!!
That is absolutely outrageous. How the **** do the BBC get away with this?!?!
Surely it should read “Sinn Fein who many believe to be the political wing of the IRA ” ?
That this vile act is not well-known may be because 1972 was a horrific year and this particular depravity took its place amongst many others… I suspect, however, that it is actually evidence of how the law-abiding, innocent victims of such atrocities (“The best lack all conviction”) do not share the Republican movement’s knack for mythologizing and propaganda (“While the worst are full of passionate intensity”).
The latter, of course, have the benefit of support from the vast resources of the BBC that you pay for.
The standard Government and police line in Northern Ireland until recently was always that the Catholic Church policed its own priests, be they bombers or paedophiles.
That was the reason William Whitelaw colluded in Fr. Chesney being shipped to Co Donegal. The RUC chief Shillington said he would have preferred somewhere further like Tipperary!
Paedophile priests were routinely shipped south and spared court appearances with excuses of terminal acne etc.
Owen Paterson’s statement, “that the security situation at the time was very serious and action against the Catholic priest might have made the violent sectarianism even worse,” is simply NIO nonsense.
If a priest had been revealed as a mass murderer Unionists and security forces would have been immeasurably strengthened in the propaganda war, although the Catholic Church and the Cardinal might have been less compliant on some future issues.
BBC is parroting NIO line on Radio 4.
Unionists might have been shrill in their response to any such revelation but no more or less sectarian.
Sorry me again. Does anyone else find it odd the media don’t seem to be chasing the Father Chesney angle of this story ? I have yet to see an interview with any of his parishoners either in NI or the Republic. In addition he just seems to have “died” in 1980 with no cause given. Hasn’t anyone got hold of a death certificate ?
There is something odd here.
The Beeboids probably think he was bumped off by Mossad…