A dignified ceremony yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles, the bomb attack on Claudy in Co Derry which left nine people dead and a further 30 injured.
Like so many other appalling events of the era, carried out by republicans, loyalists and on occasions the forces of the state, no one was ever brought to justice for the nightmare inflicted on the small village.
It has been well documented that the Claudy bombing was the work of the south Derry brigade of the IRA, but to make matters even worse the organisation has never accepted responsibility for its actions.
Devices were placed in three stolen cars which were parked in the centre of the village on the morning of July 31, 1972, outside a bar, a hotel and a post office, and it appears that attempts by the perpetrators to raise the alarm after they left the scene were frustrated when a public phone box was out of order and other telephones were not working.
However, leaving the three huge bombs in such a small village was an act of lunacy in the first place and a catastrophe was inevitable when they all detonated in the space of 15 minutes.
The youngest fatality, Kathryn Eakin, was just nine, and two other children, Patrick Connolly (15) and William Temple (16) were also killed as panic stricken victims tried to escape from one explosion only to be caught in two others.
Among the most disturbing aspects of the massacre were persistent claims that a Catholic priest, Fr James Chesney, who died in 1980, was in some way connected to the Claudy outrage.
No conclusive evidence of his involvement has emerged and the Bishop of Derry, Dr Donal McKeown, has said he believes that any information the church possessed about the priest’s alleged role is already in the hands of the authorities.
There will also be enormous sympathy for the view expressed by the former Ulster Unionist councillor Mary Hamilton, who was injured in the bombing, that the British government should halt its controversial legacy legislation which would effectively rule out any remote prospect of a prosecution over Claudy and other similar cases.
Another appropriate gesture after the 50th anniversary of the Claudy carnage would be if the IRA finally and definitively admitted that it planted the bombs.
