Families of IRA car bomb victims call for new police investigation

The people of Claudy, a village of 1,000 inhabitants six miles south-east of Londonderry, were given no warning when three IRA car bombs exploded with devastating consequences.

Nine people, including eight-year-old Kathryn Eakin, were killed by the bombs on 31 July, 1972, when they ripped through the "mixed" settlement, which is home to both Protestant and Catholic families.

The eight-year-old was cleaning the windows of her family's shop when the first bomb went off.

Yesterday, her elder brother Mark said: "I would like to ask the British government if they would now step in and investigate this thing further, give the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland] of today, who are still trying to investigate, more resources."

The other eight people who died were Elizabeth McElhinney, 59, the owner of the pub and shop where the first car bomb went off; Joseph McClusker, a father of seven who had taken his four-year-old-son into the village to buy a newspaper; Rose McLaughlin, 52-year-old mother of eight; Patrick Connolly, 15; Arthur Hone, 38; David Miller, 60; James McClelland, 65 and William Temple, 16.