Murder victim's son speaks on Claudy bomb

66-year-old Gordon Miller, whose father David was killed as he carried the injured from the scene of one of the bombs, has recalled how his mother passed the scene of the first explosion just minutes before. 60-year-old David, a local road worker from Irwin Crescent in Claudy, was killed by the second of three bombs in the small County Londonderry village on July 31, 1972. He was one of nine civilians caught up in the IRA massacre after the car bombs were planted in the small area. Speaking to the Sentinel before the launch of the Claudy Bomb Report yesterday, Mr Miller, who was 28-years-old at the time, described how he nearly lost both parents in the attack.

"My mother saw one of them (the bombers) run down through the old cattle market. He had red hair and jumped into a car just down the road a bit. She knew something wasn't right somewhere.

"As she was walking past the bank the first bomb went off and threw her against the railings. One or two minutes earlier and my mother would've been killed. They just abandoned them anywhere and ran. "

Mr Miller, who moved to Limavady from Claudy 45 years ago after he got married, described the moment he found out his father had been killed in the attack.

"I got the call about lunchtime to say there had been a bomb in Claudy so I went up. I couldn't get the car in because of the amount of roof tiles and slates everywhere, so I parked up the car and walked to my home. The whole place was just covered in glass and slates and what not.

"When I got home I walked in and my mother was sitting crying I just thought 'there's something not right here', and that's when they told me."

One of the bomb's had exploded just 50 yards from Gordon's family home in the village. His father was killed as he returned to the scene of the initial bomb to help more of the injured when the second blast occurred.

"I couldn't believe it. It was like something out of a horror film. The only way they could identify my father was, he had a pin on his dungarees, he was meant to be getting a button on it the next day, he never got it on. That was the only way they could recognise him

He had been helping and moving people away from where the first bomb went off when the second bomb went. He was working with his friend at the time and the two of them were killed."

"He was just an ordinary, everyday man who looked after his family and did a days work, he never did anyone harm. When I was younger we fished together, went for a pint and had a chat. He was 60 when he died."

To this day it's very sad. It was a totally random attack that went very wrong. The phone lines weren't working at the time so no warnings could get through."

The Provisional IRA is widely believed to have carried out the bombing, but has never claimed responsibility. No person was arrested for the attack at the time but following calls for a new inquiry into the attack, a fresh investigation was started by the PSNI in 2002. As part of the investigation the police uncovered documents showing that the then Secretary of State Willie Whitelaw discussed a Catholic priest's involvement with Cardinal William Conway.