The senior Sinn Fein politician in Northern Ireland's government says he met a Catholic priest responsible for a 1972 bombing that killed nine civilians — but insists they never discussed his or the IRA's involvement in the attack.
A British government-sanctioned report last month found that police, government and Catholic Church authorities conspired to shield the priest, James Chesney, from prosecution amid fears that his arrest would inflame Irish Catholic opinion.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, who in 1972 commanded the Irish Republican Army in the area, said Wednesday he met the priest shortly before his death in 1980. He denied knowing Chesney before then.
McGuinness was facing reporters' questions about Chesney and the 1972 cover-up.
