‘Be honest and come clean’ plea

Dismissing the former Deputy First Minister’s presidency bid , Mrs Hamilton said she did not feel Mr McGuinness was “a suitable candidate” for the post.

“A president in any country needs to be honest, trustworthy and have the respect of all of the people. I would not like to be standing for election if people are saying about me what they are saying about him,” she said.

“He has never approached the people of Claudy even though he said he would meet us, but he never has, and has never talked over the bombing of the village with us. We are still waiting for him to come back to us and come clean. I would like to ask him if he has ever had to look into the face of a child who has lost their father.

“I went to a school to pick up a six-year-old child who thought she was going out for a trip with her mum and dad, and then we had to tell her that he dad had been shot and was not coming home. That was back in 1972 and that was my niece. That little girl was robbed of her father, Ellis Hamilton, and the rest of our family was robbed of someone we loved very much. That happened in the same year as the Claudy bombing, and I speak as someone who still suffers physically as a result of that bombing. I want to ask him how I am supposed to cope with the sights that I saw, and how he expects me to wipe away those terrible memories without so much as an apology of explanation. Can he not be honest?” Mrs Hamilton asked.

She continued: “The question I would like to ask him is this; ‘We are told to move on and leave the past behind, so does that mean there will be no more enquiries and no investigation or answers for those effected by the McGurks bar atrocity, Claudy bombing and other incidents just like them?

“I truly believe that before Martin McGuinness can claim to be working for peace and speaking for and on behalf of all the people, he needs to be honest with himself and with those still grieving and give us closure, because we need to have peace too.

“Is Mr McGuinness prepared to be honest with us? Why is he so scared to meet the people of Claudy? We owe it to the people who have been murdered to still try to fight for justice on their behalf. What sort of people would be if we just forgot about them? Mr McGuinness is free to stand for President of Ireland, but there are murdered people lying in their graves and we cannot vote for them, all we can do is bring them flowers and shed our tears,” she said.