Awful memories that never go away

MARY Hamilton will never forget July 31, 1972 when she and her husband Ernie were caught up in the terror as three car bombs tore through the unsuspecting village of Claudy, leaving death and destruction in their wake.

People leaving the scene of the first bomb moved somewhere else in the hope of finding safety.

But all they found were more devices - two further car bombs that exploded simultaneously, causing more carnage.

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Among those who died in the second wave of the attack was a teenage boy who had been injured in the first explosion, but who had carried on working.

In one of those twists that only real life can conjure up, he had ignored his wounds to deliver milk to the home of the local parish priest and on returning to his vehicle was caught in the second blast.

Only later did it emerge that another priest - a man who professed a love of God and all God's creatures - was suspected of being involved in one of Northern Ireland's worst atrocities.

Standing among the disbelieving and frightened people caught up in the terror were Ernie and Mary Hamilton, who had recently fulfilled Ernie's

dream of opening a bar.

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They had raced from their Beaufort guest house on hearing the first blast. They watched in horror as first they saw bodies of people they knew lying amid the chaos, before the terror revisited Claudy in the shape of two more bombs.

Overwhelmed

Narrowly missing death themselves this time, they could only watch as people died and were mutilated in front of their eyes, their own agony as shrapnel tore through their skin numbed, as the shock of what they were experiencing overwhelmed them.

Nine people died immediately or later from their injuries, including three children.

Families were left without husbands, wives, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters.

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Children would never grow up to have kids of their own, and ever-mourning parents would spend the rest of their lives marking the milestone occasions their beloved children never lived to see.

Many others were maimed, physically or mentally, or both, and the scars have never completely healed.

The youngest victim was eight-year-old Kathryn Eakin who was cleaning the windows of the family grocery store.

Killed

The other people killed were, Joseph McCluskey 39, David Miller aged 60, James McClelland 65, William Temple 16, Elizabeth McElhinney 59, Rose McLaughlin aged 51, Patrick Connolly and Arthur Hone.

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For survivors Ernie and Mary Hamilton, it had all seemed so different just minutes earlier, as they ran the bar that they had worked hard to bring to reality just weeks earlier.

"We did it all ourselves," said Mary. "We spent the first two years renovating it and it was wrecked in the bomb. There were eight rooms, and after the explosion everything would have fitted into one room.

"When the first bomb went off, it was up the street, but there were others, and one was parked at our front door. They were targeted at Eakin's, a post office and our place."

Blocked

"They wanted to attack three Protestant places," added her husband.

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"But their way to Eakin's was blocked. So they left one at McElhinney's bar.

"We heard the first bomb at 10 past 10 in the morning. Some of the windows went in. The milkman was having a Guinness and he and I went up the street but they discovered others (devices) and we were chased down the street."

As Mary joined him, they found themselves in the midst of a terrible scene.

"It was awful," recalls Mary. "Mrs McLaughlin owned the cafe. She was threatened for serving soldiers. She used to say, 'If my son was in a foreign country, I'd like someone to serve him. Her children were crying, 'Somebody help my mammy'.

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"When the second bombs went off, we were standing in the middle of the road and a bolt put a hole in the bonnet of the car that we were beside. Three people were killed beside us.

"The wee boy Temple had just started work."

Hit

Ernie said: "He got hit in the first bomb and his hand got cut and then he went in with milk to the parochial house, and came out and was going to the lorry and he was standing with Mr McClelland at the back of the lorry when the axle of the van (with the bomb) hit them.

"It was heard for miles. There were men from Donemana who heard the bombs and came up."

A bit of steel cut into Ernie's leg, and another piece of shrapnel embedded itself so far in his wife's leg that it has never been removed. She still bears the scars, and the memories that haunted her sleep every night for a long time after the atrocity are never too far from the surface. (She eventually was given just 750 compensation. Someone told her that, as she was married , her legs weren't so important anymore.)

Never forget

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"You never forget it," she said. "I still see it all so vividly. I can still see Kathryn Eakin getting carried down the street by her grandfather, who handed her to the doctor. There wasn't a mark on her, just a piercing here." She pointed at her temple area.

"I saw everyone who died, people mutilated, decapitated. For months after that, I wouldn't go anywhere with cars. It had that effect on you.

"Afterwards, it was like a ghost town. There were caravans brought out to house people. That night it lashed with rain, and someone said that's what was needed to wash the blood from the streets. I felt like I'd been blown inside out.

Funerals

"The next week, all you did was attend funerals. It takes a long time to get over. In bed at night you saw the mutilated bodies."

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The idea that a priest was involved had been circulating in Claudy soon after the explosions, and it was given substance after a letter was sent six years ago to Mrs Hamilton and the News Letter, purporting to come from a priest in England, to whom Fr James Chesney had allegedly confessed his involvement.

While the letter is believed to have been a fake, it had the effect of sparking off a new investigation, in which evidence was found o f a cover-up

between the Government and Catholic church leaders, with the priest's part discussed by then Secretary of State William Whitelaw and Cardinal William Conway. The church later reassigned Chesney to Donegal where he died of cancer in 1980. Ernie Hamilton has no doubts whatsoever. He defied the bombers by buying a portable building - which was later sold on to the Gransha Social Club - to keep the business

going until they could rebuild the bombed guesthouse.

"Chesney was involved," he insisted. I knew three weeks after. A man came into the bar who was a friend of mine, and he said, 'You won't believe it, it was a priest who organised it'. I told the police, but I heard no more about it. He was later moved to Moville."

The release of the Police Ombudsman's report will have unleashed many memories - but then many of them will never have gone away.

As Mary says: "I still see it all as if it was yesterday."

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