10 September 2010 Last updated at 09:11 ET

Claudy bombing suspect priest was 'flamboyant'

A police ombudsman report said the RUC believed Fr James Chesney was involved in the bombing

One of the authors of a report into dealing with the legacy of the Troubles has said he met the priest suspected of involvement in the Claudy bombings.

Denis Bradley, who chaired the Consultative Group on the Past, said he met Father James Chesney on three or four occasions.

Mr Bradley described Fr Chesney as "flamboyant" but at the time was not aware of any link to the 1972 atrocity.

He added he was not surprised Martin McGuinness "forgot" meeting Fr Chesney.

Mr Bradley was speaking after the deputy first minister revealed on Wednesday that he had met the priest on his deathbed, despite having previously denied ever having contact with him.

Mr Bradley said he met Fr Chesney after the Catholic Church had moved him to County Donegal.

He said he did not know the priest very well, but found him to be "flamboyant, interesting and a little bit immature".

He told BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme: "Outside of the that I don't really have any memory, apart from I liked him, but then I like the flamboyant people".

'Confused'

"I certainly had no knowledge of the fact that there were any accusations or insinuations that he was involved in the IRA or in the Claudy bombings, so it wasn't common knowledge at that particular time".

Denis Bradley, who is a former priest, described the years leading up to and after the 1972 attack as "chaotic" for the security forces, the IRA and the Catholic Church in Northern Ireland.

He said the IRA was "rather amateurish" and the Church was "as confused as everybody else" about how to deal with the surge in violence.

"People are now saying if Martin McGuinness was a leader in Derry he must have known.

"My memory is, even if he was a leader in Dublin he didn't know what was going on, because it was all ad hoc, it was all happening from day to day, it was chaotic."

He added that "99%" of the clergy he knew were strongly opposed to violence.

He called for politicians to examine the recommendations of the report from the Consultative Group on the Past and said they could not keep using historical events as a "force for division".