'With all due respect he was one man': Relatives of victims of three massive IRA atrocities ask where their inquiries are after new probe announced into Pat Finucane murder
The relatives of three people killed in massive IRA atrocities for which no-one has been brought to justice have asked: Where is our public inquiry?
The trio were reacting to the news that a new investigation is to be held into the killing of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989 by the UDA, for which loyalist Ken Barrett was convicted in 2004.
James Miller, 55, lost his grandfather David in the 1972 IRA triple car-bomb atrocity at Claudy.
James' father had campaigned over the atrocity for much of his life, but died several years ago.
James said there has been more political drive for the Finucane inquiry, and Claudy atrocity was "the poor relative" by comparison.
Like with the Finucane murder, he believes there was "collusion" in the Claudy case... but of a different kind.
He thinks there was a conspiracy after the bombing to cover up the role of Catholic priest James Chesney in the attack, lest it spark reprisals against Catholic clerics in general.
"I'm happy they've got their public inquiry. We're still waiting on ours.
"They seem to just ignore us or want us to go away – it's frustrating.
"I'm happy they're getting their inquiry but I'm also not happy because again Claudy is the poor relative.
"We're getting nothing, and it seems to be the Finucane family have got a bigger machine behind them and they're able to secure theirs.
"It's not to take away from their right to justice. But what about us? What about the people in Claudy?
"Ok, he's maybe a high-profile solicitor. But, with all due respect, he was one man. We had nine killed – Catholics, Protestants, women, children, men.
"It seems unfair to the thousands of other deaths that happened that this one has been singled out."
May Quinn, 89, lost her brother Bobby Walker in the IRA's Kingsmill bloodbath in 1976, in which 11 Protestant civilians were lined up and shot, with only one survivor.
She told the News Letter: "Why can they not have an inquiry into Kingsmills? I they can have an inquiry into Finucane, my brother is as good as theirs. That's the way I look at it.
"If the government wants to spend money on inquiries for one person, can they not expend it on inquiries for other persons?"
She said her brother had been a "good Christian fellow".
She added it is "a shame and a disgrace" to hold another investigation into the Finucane case.
"The man is dead and gone, somebody has admitted doing it. That's it," she said.
She suggested the money would be better spent "being given to hospitals for sick, sick people that can't get an operation".
Meanwhile Julie Hambleton, who campaigns for justice for the IRA's 1974 Birmingham Bombings which killed 21 people (including sister Maxine), said: "We're pleased that at least another family is getting what they deserve. But our question is: where's ours? Where's our public inquiry?
"In two months it will be the 50th memorial. The Birmingham Six were released in 1991.
"Nobody – nobody, from the police to the Home Office, to all successive governments, no matter what colour – decided to do anything to look for the real murderers in what continues to be England's biggest and longest unsolved mass murder of the 20th century."