Mum finally reunited with bomb victim

Mum finally reunited with bomb victim

For 36 years they had been apart, robbed of a precious life together by faceless IRA bombers.

This week Merle Eakin was finally reunited with her little girl Kathryn.

Nine-year-old Kathryn was one of nine people who were murdered when two non-warning bombs exploded in the Co Derry village of Claudy.

Her mum Merle and daddy Billy never got over the murder of their little girl.

On Tuesday, Merle Eakin tragically died after suffering a stroke.

Mrs Eakin, who lived in Castlerock, was buried side by side with her daughter in the family grave in Claudy.

Mary Hamilton, a UUP councillor and who also injured In the atrocity, said the Eaktns had never forgot (en their daughrer.

"My sympathy goes out to her husband Billy and to their son Mark," said councillor Hamilton.

"Merle never got over what happened. Now after 36 years she is back with Kathryn."

In the past, Mrs Eakin had spoken publicly about the how she tried to come to terms over the years with the loss of her daughter.

"It is very emotional because it is the same Christmas present every year, a bunch of flower," Mrs Eakin once said in an interview.

"You don't have to think about what you are going to buy her. It's not fair really. She was such a lovely child."

And she was shocked when she was told that police files on the 1972 Claudy bomb revealed that Catholic priest Fr Jim Chesney was an IRA member and a suspect in the attack.

Said Mrs Eakin: "I really can hardly believe that a man in such a position can do something like that."

A Police Ombudsman report into the bombing was due to be released several months ago, but its publication has now been delayed while a new development was probed. 17th August 2008 Sunday World