Claudy bombing 50 years on: ‘Our mum was wonderful... our rock’

On Monday, July 31, 1972 everything was to change for the nine families in Claudy who would lose a loved one on this day or in the days that followed. A small village community who got on quietly with life, until that fateful day, were to find their lives decimated by the actions of others.

A car bomb had been placed outside our shop and as Dad stood at the counter serving a customer, Mum had just come back inside following a telephone call with her brother Michael in Derry. She was standing by the window speaking to a customer when the bomb went off.

She passed away in Altnagevlin hospital on August 3, 1972 as a result of the injuries she sustained. Words will never do justice to the devastation this brought upon our family as we dealt with the grief of our loss and the manner of our mum’s passing.

Eight young children had lost their mum and a husband had lost his wife. Our mum was our rock and the very foundation of our family and her murder robbed us of the love, kindness and guidance that had previously blessed our lives. Our dad never got over that day and the pain of his loss was hard to process. This was a time long before counselling would be offered to help ease the pain.

Our ability to rebuild our lives was also hampered by the fact the family business and main source of family income was also destroyed in the events of that day and there was no financial help to rebuild. Not only had they taken our mum they had also taken her dreams of building a better life for her family.

In the years that have passed since our mum’s death we, her children, have built our own families upon the foundation stones our mother laid down for us and although our mum may not have been with us to share in many happy moments, our memories of her and her presence has always been felt, we miss her everyday.

To this day our loved ones have not received the justice they so rightly deserve nor has the truth been told of the events of that day.

It seems that in the 50 years since their murders they have been continually failed by those who we had placed our trust in to serve this justice.

-The McLaughlin Family