Claudy victim’s brother backs McGuinness stance

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.

“I think he is walking down the right road. In my view he is genuinely trying.”

Mr Eakin revealed that he had been invited to the re-opening of First Derry Presbyterian Church in May this year with the sole purpose to try and have a meeting with the Deputy First Minister over the 1972 Claudy attacks.

The meeting did not take place on that occasion but Mark Eakin further revealed that he has since spoken to Martin McGuinness on the phone “a few times.”

“I was a few feet from him at the opening of First Derry Presbyterian Church and we were going to try and have a discreet meeting, but he had to go somewhere else.

“In the conversations I have had with him I believe he genuinely does want to help. But, what will come out of it, I don’t know, we’ll see,” he said.

As yet, there is no confirmation that a face to face meeting between Mr Eakin and the Sinn Fein leader is due to take place but Mark Eakin said:

“The only way to resolve anything is to talk. There is nothing to be made by me going into a rant about him standing for the presidency.

“I class myself as British/Irish. He has a love for Ireland, but so do I and I don’t want to see Ireland hurt again. It makes sense if we work together to start to respect each other, but I have always had respect for everyone. I don’t live my life with regard for any religion, it is just people and good friends that matter.

“If he steps into Mary McAleese’s boots and begins to lace them up he’ll be going the right road-we’ll all be going the right road.”

Mark Eakin stated he believed that Martin McGuinness was starting to move into a more cross-community footing. Asked for his thinking on the recent speech made my Rev David Latimer at the Sinn Fein annual conference, he told the

Sentinel: “I didn’t hear that speech, but I am sure it was little different than the speech that Martin McGuinness gave at First Derry. I saw people clapping that night that I never though I would see clapping. He welcomed Protestants back to the west bank, and for him to even say that was a big thing.

“I know what he was involved in, but somebody can step back and change. He is working towards a united Ireland, but he knows that’s a long haul down the road, but in the meantime we can make the road smoother.

“I believe there is no way we can survive economically without British involvement and I think republicans know that too and Martin McGuinness becoming President isn’t going to make a united Ireland happen any sooner.”