Edward Daly (bishop) - 2010 Claudy Bombing Report

2010 Claudy Bombing Report

In August 2010, Bishop Daly questioned the report into the Claudy bombing by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland and criticised media coverage of it. Bishop Daly queried Al Hutchinson’s report, which said the Catholic Church co-operated with the British government to remove a priest suspected of involvement in the bombing in 1972. He further doubted involvement by Fr James Chesney in the bomb attack on the County Londonderry village, which killed nine people, the youngest aged just eight. Bishop Daly said his experience of the Troubles and of high-profile miscarriages of justice had bred a “constructive scepticism”. “I have seen convictions based on signed admissions and forensic evidence completely overturned years later,” he said. “Fr Chesney was never arrested, questioned, charged or convicted. He cannot answer for himself. He has been dead 30 years.”