Memorial for the Bombings

On Monday, 31 July 1972, three huge car bombs exploded mid-morning in the centre of the town of Claudy in County Londonderry. The motive for the attack has never been discovered, neither has the reason why the assailants failed to provide a telephoned warning, as was customary during large attacks to minimise human loss, whilst maximising publicity. July 31 is the 212th day (213th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 153 days remaining. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1972 calendar). ... Claudy is a little village outside of Derry with a primary school, Church and a college named St. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: coord}}}_N_{{{west coord}}}_W_{{{region:IE_type:city}}} {{{north coord}}}° N {{{west coord}}}° W Irish Grid Reference grid}}} {{{irish grid}}} Statistics Province: Ulster County: District: County Town: Derry (Londonderry) Code: Area: 2,074 km² Elevation: Population: Website: [http:// ] County Londonderry (Contae Dhoire or Doire in Irish...

The Derry City branch of the Provisional Irish Republican Army denied involvement in an official statement, although Londonderry politician Ivan Cooper claimed that this was a deliberately misleading announcement, and that other IRA brigades were almost certainly involved. This assessment is agreed with by the CAIN project of the University of Ulster. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA; more commonly referred to as the IRA, the Provos, or by some of its supporters as the army or the RA) is an Irish Republican paramilitary organisation dedicated to the end of British rule in Northern Ireland and to a United Ireland. ... The University of Ulster (UU) is a multi-site university located in Northern Ireland and is the largest single university on the island of Ireland, discounting the federal National University of Ireland. ...

The placing of the car bombs was designed to cause the maximum destruction, being placed at intervals along the town's High Street, which was packed with morning shoppers a the time of the blasts, including many children enjoying the summer holidays.

Nine people died or were fatally injured in the explosions, including three children. None of the victims, or the town itself, was a prominent landmark on the face of The Troubles, the mixed population of Catholics and Protestants largely content to peacefully co-exisit, so the choice of Claudy as the target of this attack remains inexplicable. Five of the dead were Catholic, and four were Protestant. The Troubles is a term used to describe two periods of violence in Ireland during the twentieth century. ...

Father James Chesney

The attacks coincided with Operation Mincemeat, a British army operation to recapture areas of Belfast and Londonderry which had become "no-go areas" patrolled by IRA gunmen. The operation was successful, as the IRA were unable to contest it due to a lack of equipment an personnel, but an IRA activist and a 15-year old boy were killed in the operation.

A memorial to those killed and injured in the bombings was raised on Claudy High Street, with a bronze figure of a girl as the central part of the site, which also includes a number of plaques. Sculpture on the Discoveries Age and Portuguese Navigators in Lisbon, Portugal Holocaust Memorial for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg by David Ascalon (1994) A memorial is an object served as a memory of something, usually a person (who has died) or an event. ... Assorted ancient bronze castings found as part of a cache, probably intended for recycling. ... The word plaque can have different connotations and can also be spelt placque: Look up Plaque on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Dental plaque is a yellowish biofilm that builds up on the teeth formed by bacteria embedded in a matrix of polymers of bacterial and salivary origin. ...

The atrocity is the subject of a renewed ongoing investigation by the Police Service of Northern Ireland, who in November 2005 made some high profile arrests, as well as implicating a local Roman Catholic priest, Father James Chesney who is now deceased. Chesney was a suspected member of the IRA's South Derry brigade, said to have joined the paramilitary group after Bloody Sunday. His level of involvement in the bombing varies according to different sources. SDLP founder Ivan Cooper believed Chesney was the "officer commanding" the IRA unit involved. After the bombing he was questioned by the Bishop of Derry Neil Farren, denying all involvement. He was moved from his parish near Desertmartin to Malin Head in County Donegal, where he died in 1980. Sinn Féin's Francie Brolly and sports journalist Seamus Mullen were questioned in connection with the bombing alongside an unidentified man and woman. All parties strongly deny any involvement. [1] [2] The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is the police service that covers Northern Ireland. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... Roman Catholic priests in traditional clerical clothing. ... Derry civil rights association banner stained with Bernard McGuigans blood after shootings On Sunday January 30, 1972, in an incident since known as Bloody Sunday, 14 people were killed and 13 others wounded by British paratroopers after a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in the Bogside area of... The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP — Irish: Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is the smaller of the two major nationalist parties in Northern Ireland. ... Ivan Cooper, a Protestant M.P. best known for leading the proscribed anti-internment march, which ended being known as Bloody Sunday on January 30, 1972, in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, where 14 unarmed men and boys -- only one of whom, Gerry Donaghy (of the Junior IRA), could be adjudged a... Categories: Stub | Headlands of Ireland ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: coord}}}_N_{{{west coord}}}_W_{{{region:IE_type:city}}} {{{north coord}}}° N {{{west coord}}}° W Irish Grid Reference grid}}} {{{irish grid}}} Statistics Province: Ulster County: District: County Town: Lifford Code: DL Area: 4,841 km² Elevation: Population: Website: www. ... It has been suggested that Provisional Sinn Féin be merged into this article or section. ...

The dead

• Joseph Connolly, 15 (Died on the 8 August)
• Kathryn Eakin, 9
• Arthur Horne, 40 (Died on 12 August)
• James McClelland, 65
• Jospeh McClosky, 38
• Elizabeth McElhinney, 59
• Rosemary McLoughlin, 51 (Died on the 3 August)
• David Miller, 60
• William Temple, 16

Irish News Article on the bombing