Widespread demands for Claudy Inquiry

Demands are being stepped up today for a judicial inquiry into astonishing police claims that the Government and the Catholic Church shielded a priest suspected of orchestrating a bombing outrage in Northern Ireland which killed nine people.

The then Northern Ireland Secretary William Whitelaw and Cardinal William Conway discussed Father Jim Chesney, who was later transferred to an isolated parish across the border in Co Donegal, even through he was a prime suspect.

Just one man was questioned about the IRA car bombing of Claudy, Derry, in July 1972, but detectives failed to charge anybody.

Fr Chesney, who was the suspected leader of the Provisionals in south Derry, died of cancer eight years later, but in the aftermath of startling new police revelations yesterday, there were accusations of a top-level cover-up and demands for a full public inquiry into the scandal which stunned the victims' relatives.