Father James Chesney – Evil bastard

EVIL

There have been plenty of scandals to do with the Catholic Church in recent years, mainly to do with sick scumbags and their predilection for kinds. This case does not relate to paedophilia but is no better.

According to the Irish Times Al Hutchinson, Northern Ireland’s Police Ombudsman, has today published a report concerning the IRA bombing of a village on 31 July 1972 and the involvement of catholic priest James Chesney

Nine people – five Catholics and four Protestants – died and 30 were injured after the no-warning car bombs exploded along the main street of Claudy. Three of the victims were children. No one was ever convicted for the bombings and the IRA did not admit the attack

Mr Hutchinson’s report, released today, endorses an allegation that at the time the RUC had top-grade intelligence that Chesney was a senior figure in the IRA gang that planted three bombs in the Co Derry village on July 31st, 1972.

Chesney was transferred to a parish in Co Donegal following secret talks between the then northern secretary William Whitelaw and the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal William Conway. He was never arrested or interviewed by police about the Claudy bombing or any other IRA activity. He died in 1980 aged 46.

In December 2002, former PSNI assistant chief constable Sam Kinkaid, who reviewed the original RUC investigation, admitted there were serious deficiencies in that investigation and said the RUC were made aware of the talks. Mr Kinkaid apologised to the bereaved for how the police handled the investigation. His claims prompted the long-running investigation by the Police Ombudsman. The thrust of Mr Kinkaid’s allegations are backed up by Mr Hutchinson’s report.

Mr Hutchinson’s officers examined diaries belonging to Dr Conway which confirmed contact with him and Mr Whitelaw over Fr Chesney and correspondence between the RUC, which was led by chief constable Sir Graham Shillington, and the British government.
Mr Hutchinson’s report disclosed:

- Detectives believed Fr Chesney was the IRA’s director of operations in south Derry and was a prime suspect in the Claudy attack and other terrorist incidents.

- A detective’s request to arrest the cleric was refused by an assistant chief constable of RUC Special Branch who instead said “matters are in hand”.

- The same senior officer wrote to the government about what action could be taken to “render harmless a dangerous priest” and asked if the matter could be raised with the Church’s hierarchy.

- In December 1972, Mr Whitelaw met Dr Conway to discuss the issue. According to a Northern Ireland Office official, “the cardinal said he knew the priest was a very bad man and would see what could be done”. The church leader mentioned “the possibility of transferring him to Donegal...”

- In response to this memo, RUC chief constable Sir Graham noted: “I would prefer a transfer to Tipperary.”

- An entry in Dr Conway’s diary on December 5th, 1972 confirmed a meeting with Mr Whitelaw took place and stated there had been “a rather disturbing tete-a-tete at the end about C”.

Mr Hutchinson said there was no evidence that the police had information that could have prevented the attack. However, he said the RUC’s decision to ask the British government to resolve the matter with the Church, and then accept the outcome, was wrong. However, Mr Hutchinson said the decisions made must be considered in the context of the time. “I accept that 1972 was one of the worst years of the Troubles and that the arrest of a priest might well have aggravated the security situation,” he said.

As regards the role of Church and State officials, Mr Hutchinson said his investigation found no evidence of criminal intent on the part of any British government minister or official or any official of the Catholic Church. “The morality or ‘rightness’ of the decision taken by the government and the Catholic Church in agreeing to the RUC request is another matter entirely and requires further public debate,” he said. “Placing this information in the public domain in a transparent manner enables that debate to take place.”

I find it sickening that a piece of human shit like Chesney went unpunished. That said, given the explosive situation in Northern Ireland, perhaps prosecuting this scumbag may have made a bad situation even worse, certainly if Loyalist terrorists had declared open season on all catholic priests. Suffice it to say that the situation in Northern Ireland would have been far worse. Whitelaw was in a position I would not wish on anyone.

But putting Chesney in Donegal? That’s a bit like exiling a Romford criminal to Hornchurch! It is for the likes of Chesney that I hope there is such a thing as Hell. He deserves to spend an eternity in such a place.

IRA Army Council defunct

The Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) declared that the IRA has disbanded its terrorist structures and relinquished the leadership necessary to wage war.

In a 12-page report the IMC said: "We are aware of the questions posed about the public disbandment of (Provisional Irish Republican Army's) PIRA's leadership structures. We believe that PIRA has chosen another method of bringing what it describes as its armed struggle to a final close. Under PIRA's own rules the Army Council was the body that directed its military campaign. Now that that campaign is well and truly over, the Army Council by deliberate choice is no longer operational or functional."


The report concluded: "The mechanism which they have chosen to bring the armed conflict to a complete end has been the standing down of the structures which engaged in the armed campaign and the conscious decision to allow the Army Council to fall into disuse. By taking these steps PIRA has completely relinquished the leadership and other structures appropriate to a time of armed conflict."

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward said the report confirmed that the IRA had ceased to function. "This groundbreaking report by the IMC makes clear that the Army Council is now redundant... As the IMC made clear, 'the leadership structures have definitely ceased to function in the way they did during the ‘time of conflict'

The British and Irish Governments had asked the IMC, made up of security experts and politicians from the UK and Ireland, to compile a special report on the status of IRA structures. Prior to the official release of the report today, it was speculated that the IMC would conclude that the Army Council remained in place, but was not engaged in any illegal activity.

Today in its report the IMC, which monitors paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland, said the IRA's redundant structures were gradually disappearing, but said it did not expect any announcements from the republican movement as that process concluded. "We believe that for some time now it has given up what it used to do and that by design it is being allowed to wither away," said the report. It added: "In our view the way in which the leadership has adopted an entirely different course, disbanded terrorist-related structures and capacity and engaged in different activities, and members have moved on to other things, means that the PIRA of the recent and violent past is well beyond recall."

Here's hoping that the effective disbandment of the Army Council is the final nail in the PIRA coffin. Here’s hoping, therefore, that the PIRA is now just part of Northern Ireland’s bloody past and not its present.... and that the “dissident” IRA groups remain a toothless rabble.

I’m not sure I would have done the same thing

The IRA conducted an extensive bombing campaign (known as the S-Plan ) from January 1939 until February 1940. The worst incident of the campaign took place in Coventry in where an explosion killed five people and injured a further 50 more. According to papers released today the actions of a London toilet attendant may have prevented further bloodshed earlier in on the campaign.

Thomas Hawkett, who worked in a men's lavatory in Oxford Street, spotted a suspicious parcel left behind in a cubicle on the evening of June 24 1939.Believing it to be a bomb, he did not waste time calling the police. Instead he picked it up, dumped it in a bucket of water, and hosed it down, knowing this would render the gelignite charge redundant. He stood over it and watched as the fuse and charge floated to the surface. Police then arrived and took it off his hands.

A string of bombs went off that night in central London causing £1,000 damage and blinding a 17-year-old boy in one eye.

The documents, released by the National Archives in Kew, Surrey, also give an insight into public anger at the IRA campaign. Following the explosions angry mobs surged around the West End looking for those responsible and pinning the blame on a number of innocent parties.One German student, who had run from the scene to alert the press, found himself at the mercy of an angry crowd until a policeman came to his aid.

Hawkett, whose age is not recorded, was later awarded £5 for his "commendable and meritorious conduct".