Bombing protest greets Blair at Dublin Castle

Protesters demanding that Britain hands over documents to an Irish commission investigating the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, which killed 33 people, gave British Prime Minister Tony Blair a noisy reception today.

Members of Justice for the Forgotten waved banners and shouted as Mr Blair’s official car swept into Dublin Castle where he was attending a meeting of the British-Irish Council.

The protesters were calling on the British authorities to speed up the process of finding official security documents to assist an inquiry under Mr Justice Barron.

Bereaved families and survivors of the bombings have been waiting for 27 years to discover why their loved ones died, amid accusations that Britain colluded with loyalist paramilitaries to plant the bombs.

They also want a date fixed for a promised meeting between Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid and Mr Justice Barron.

Three car bombs exploded in Dublin on May 17, 1974, killing 26 people, just minutes before a fourth blast in Monaghan killed seven more.

Solicitor for the families Greg O’Neill said: ‘‘For nearly 11 months the independent commission of inquiry has been waiting to get even one piece of information from the British files into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

‘‘I have no idea why there has been such a long delay but it adds hugely to the feeling of the families, and generally in the public, that the British government has something to hide.

‘‘We are standing in protest when Prime Minister Blair, who is waging a war on international terrorism, goes into the castle.

‘‘He has his own case to answer in terms of the way his government and preceding governments have harboured and given a safe haven to those who carried out these murders.’’

He said there must be a vast quantity of documents about the event, because the Bloody Sunday inquiry, being held in Derry, had seen ‘‘whole reams’’ of intelligence and military reports about that incident.

‘‘Senior intelligence personnel in Northern Ireland, within a year of the bombings, were corresponding with those loyalists who were suspected of involvement,’’ Mr O’Neill said.

Britain has consistently denied the allegation.