FitzGerald says he has no recall of cabinet talks about Dublin/Monaghan bombings

FORMER Taoiseach Dr Garret FitzGerald said he does not recall details of any Cabinet conversations about the Dublin/Monaghan bombings in the months following the atrocity.

Dr FitzGerald, Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Fine Gael/Labour Government of the time, told yesterday’s committee there may have been informal discussions but he could not recall the details.

But Margaret Irwin, secretary of Justice for the Forgotten, said she does not understand how a Cabinet minister was unable to recall any details of what was at the time the equivalent of, in terms of per head of population, of the numbers killed on September 11 in the US.

Ms Irwin, speaking after the meeting, claimed it reinforced Mr Justice Barron’s view that the Government of the day showed little interest in the bombings. The judge based his claims largely on the lack of any mention them in the minutes of cabinet meetings.

Dr FitzGerald rejected the charge, saying the judge “clearly does not understand how government works”.

Mr Justice Barron’s report also concluded: ‘Any follow up was limited to complaints by the Minister for Foreign Affairs that those involved were released from internment.’

But the former Taoiseach said it was not the practice of his department to intervene in matters that were properly under the remit of the Garda and army intelligence.

Other than the Taoiseach and the Justice Minister no one in government would have been privy to intelligence gathered about those who planted the four bombs that killed 33 people on May 17, 1974.

Mr Justice Henry Barron, who investigated the bombings for the committee, interviewed Dr Fitzgerald and reminded him of a September 1974 meeting attended by the then foreign affairs minister, the Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave and the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson. At the meeting, Mr Wilson mentioned that the perpetrators of the bombings had been interned.

Mr Justice Barron questioned why this was not followed up. Dr Fitzgerald said it was not his place to do so while the Taoiseach would have already been aware, from information passed by the British to army intelligence on June 1, that two of the suspects were in custody.

Cormac Ó Dúlacháin, for the families of those killed, argued that a public inquiry must be held because the Barron Inquiry “significantly fails” to find out the truth in relation to the bombings, the Garda investigation, state action or collusion between the loyalist paramilitaries and the British military. Mr Ó Dúlacháin said questions need to be answered as to why 15 suspects were not questioned in the weeks following the attacks.

A former British Army explosives expert, Lt Col Nigel Wylde, told the committee it was his opinion that loyalists would not have had the expertise to carry out the bombings without help.

Furthermore, he argued they did not have access to the explosives used - ammonia nitrate fuel. This was probably seized from the IRA by security forces in the North, he said.