Murphy claims no evidence of collusion in bombings

NO evidence has been uncovered by the authorities in the North linking members of the RUC, UDR, British army or intelligence services to the Dublin/Monaghan bombings, Secretary of State Paul Murphy has claimed.

In a letter to the Oireachtas committee hearings into the Barron Report, Mr Murphy said if any evidence had been found, it would have been passed on to Mr Justice Henry Barron.

After requests to the British for information, the judge received a 10-page letter from the Northern secretary and a further six pages detailing the workings of the security services at the time. The Northern Ireland Office said there are 68,000 files of possible relevance and millions more in London's Ministry of Defence.

Mr Justice Barron received no original files from the British authorities. Mr Murphy declined an offer to attend the justice sub-committee hearings. The letter was in his name and those of his immediate predecessors, John Reid and Peter Mandelson.

In the letter, Paul Murphy said no evidence of collusion had been uncovered relating to any members of the RUC, UDR or other British agencies relating to the bombings of May 1974. He added there was no evidence that information on loyalist terrorist plans had been withheld or that the subsequent investigation had been obstructed in any way.

Hugh Orde, the Chief Constable of the PSNI, also sent a letter declining the invitation to attend the committee's hearings in person. Mr Justice Barron's report praises the RUC for making available original files, particularly those connected to the questioning of two former officers suspected of being involved in attacks on Catholics. Members of the seven-person sub-committee expressed disappointment at the failure of the Secretaries of State and the PSNI Chief Constable to attend the hearings.

Mr Justice Barron's view is that loyalists were capable of carrying out the bombings without help (this does not rule out the involvement of individual members of the various organisations) but admits there is no evidence. There is a deep suspicion, he concludes, that members of the UVF suspected of involvement were paid agents and this may have hampered the investigation into the bombings.

Dr Jim Donovan, former head of the Forensic Science Laboratory, told the committee the UVF lacked bomb-making expertise at the time of the atrocities.

He does not believe the UVF was capable of carrying out the attacks such attacks without some outside help. Its members would also have needed trial runs.

He said the co-ordination of bombings in Dublin to cause maximum confusion and damage was similar to tactics used by the Provisional IRA, which was more advanced in making and carrying out bombings.