Incoming Taoiseach Brian Cowen is facing a legal battle over an official investigation into the massacre of 33 people in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, it emerged today.

The Irish Government betrayed the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings by deciding on a private inquiry into the atrocities, relatives claimed tonight.

Justice Henry Barron today defended his criticism of the way the Government handled the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, which killed 34 people.

ONE day in May 1974. Over the years the horror of that day — the 33 lives it claimed, how it blighted the lives of the survivors and bereaved — receded from public consciousness.