LONDON — The British government and the Roman Catholic Church conspired to cover up the suspected involvement of a local priest in a deadly triple bombing in Northern Ireland in 1972 that killed nine people, a new investigation into the attack found Tuesday.
Despite strong evidence that Father James Chesney had a hand in the explosions that ripped through the village of Claudy in July 1972, police decided not to go after the priest but instead asked officials in London to work with church leaders in having him removed from the area. Chesney moved across the border and was later assigned to a parish in Ireland.
No one was ever charged in connection with the attack near Londonderry, one of the most notorious incidents of terrorist violence during Northern Ireland’s “Troubles” because of its high civilian toll.
Among the dead were an 8-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy.
The three car bombs were put down as the handiwork of the Irish Republican Army, although no formal declaration of responsibility was ever made.
Chesney, a priest in the nearby village of Bellaghy, was long suspected of being an IRA member and of helping to orchestrate the attack. He died 30 years ago. In 2002, Northern Ireland’s police ombudsman agreed to reopen an investigation, whose results were released Tuesday.
The report concluded that, rather than fulfill their obligation to bring criminals to justice, senior officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, or RUC, sought the help of the British government to “render harmless a dangerous priest.”
The decision to remove him quietly from the scene rather than pursue him legally may have sprung from the British ruling establishment’s fears that the arrest of a clergyman could spark an all-out civil war between the province’s Catholics and Protestants.
