Breakaway group slams bombings hearing

Three families of those killed in the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings today demanded that the newly opened parliamentary inquiry into the atrocities be abandoned.

As victims and relatives of those killed in the bombings appeared before the committee to plead for a public inquiry, the so-called breakaway group claimed the investigation was meaningless.

Members of the Justice for the Forgotten group took turns to stand before the committee and describe the scenes they faced on May 17, 1974 and the horrific circumstances they have had to live with for the past 30 years.

The inquiry, which is expected to last three months, is considering Justice Henry Barron’s report into the bombings, published in December.

But solicitor Desmond Doherty, acting on behalf of three families, said his clients had suffered enough and called for the hearing to be abandoned and a full public inquiry to be launched immediately.

He said the families should not have to come forward to the hearing to describe their pain and suffering.

Mr Doherty said: “Everybody knows how they have been maimed. These bombings happened in 1974, not last week.

“This is not a trivial investigation, it is an inquiry into matters of life and death and Irish state accountability.”

A statement was read to the committee on behalf of the three families who object to the hearing.

It said: “The proposed scheme of events is insulting and suspicious and at its best, the attempt to settle these so-called hearings is naïve and foolish.

“We have tragically got used to being ignored, demonised and criticised by all organs of the state for the last 30 years and in effect we have been marginalised. We have suffered enough.

“If this committee by now does not know who we are and how we have suffered then you should resign from your position immediately.”

It went on to say the families were sick of describing their experiences, which had now become a matter of undeniable fact.

It said: “We have been sucked into a vortex of civil service, governmental and political bureaucracy and red tape.

“Our suffering has been replaced by rules, regulations, committees and sub-committees. We have been lost in this process.” They called for the three-month hearing to be abandoned and for a public inquiry to be opened immediately.

Committee chairman Sean Ardagh said he would look into the application and respond to it before next Tuesday.

Earlier, counsel for the Justice for the Forgotten group Cormac O Dulachain said Judge Barron’s report was a “ringing endorsement” for a public inquiry.

He said although it addressed the issues in a superficial way, in that it contains detail and comment on most aspects of the bombings, it did not establish the truth.

Mr O Dulachain said: “As a report it is devastating in the extent of failures it reveals.

“The conclusions of the judge cannot be compared to those which would be realised by a full public inquiry.

“It did not establish why those omissions and failures occurred, nor did it establish who should take responsibility.”

Alice O’Brien, who lost her sister, brother-in-law and their two children in the Parnell Street, Dublin bombing, said the government of the day had done nothing and a subsequent Garda investigation had come to nothing.

She said: “The door has been shut in our faces many times and we hope that this is at last an opening.”

Committee chairman Sean Ardagh said the function of the hearings was to assess what lessons might be learned from the Barron report and whether a public inquiry would be fruitful.

The report was critical of the Government at the time of the bombings and of the original Garda investigation but found no evidence of collusion at a senior level.

At a meeting with Tony Blair yesterday, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern asked any British officials who may be called by the inquiry to cooperate fully.

The Dublin bombs on May 17, 1974 killed 26 people in three streets, including a pregnant woman. The Monaghan bomb on the same day killed seven people.