Claudy victim’s brother backs McGuinness stance

THE brother of the youngest victim of one of the Trouble’s worst atrocities has said he believes Martin McGuinness’ nomination for the Irish presidency is a “step forward”.

Mark Eakin’s nine-year-old sister, Kathryn, died on July 31, 1972 when three car bombs exploded in the County Londonderry village of Claudy.

The attack is widely believed to have been the work of the Provisional IRA an organisation which Mr McGuinness has admitted to being a leading member of in that period.

In 2009, a Police Ombudsman’s report set up to look at the RUC handling of the attack concluded that police, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, William Whitelaw, and the upper echelons of the Catholic Church had colluded in aspects of the investigation into the attacks.

The nomination by Sinn Fein of Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister to stand for the post of head of state in the Irish Republic has drawn scathing criticism from unionist quarters, but Mark Eakin says he has changed his viewpoint on the former IRA commander.

“I think this is a step forward, a big step forward,” Mr Eakin told the Sentinel.

He continued: “When he helped out with getting the money for First Derry Presbyterian Church and stepped over the threshold there, it changed my whole outlook on the man.

“What has happened is in the past, we have all had chequered pasts. He is not the only one out there with a past being stuck up there in the limelight, so I don’t see his nomination can do any harm.