Bombings inquest: Families tell their stories

A man who survived the First World War could not survive a stroll down the street in his own city, the inquest into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings heard today.

Peggy Watchford, the grandniece of John Dargle, told the hearing into the deaths of 34 people that her uncle was bombed into oblivion during the 1974 attacks.

The inquest into the deaths of those killed in the single worst day of violence during the Northern Ireland Troubles finally got under way today, 30 years after the atrocity.

Families of the bereaved were the first witnesses to take to the witness box and gave harrowing evidence of the effect the atrocity had had on their lives.

Gertie Shields said her aunt, Concepta Dempsey, never regained consciousness before her life-support machine was switched off a month after she was caught up in the attack on Talbot Street, Dublin.

She issued a heartfelt plea to the 10 members of the jury charged with finding a verdict in the deaths.

“Remember that each and every one of these people were part of loving families. They are not just numbers of people killed on a particular day,” she said.

Timothy Grace, whose wife Breda Grace died in the attack on Talbot Street, said he had never recovered from the bombing.

“Like all the other victims, it had a devastating effect on me and my family,” he said.

“My son was a year old and he never knew his mother. I’ve never come across anyone else who never knew their mother but thankfully he turned out very well and he is now running my business.

“I never remarried.

“The horror of Dublin that night was something I’d hope no-one in this room would ever witness,” he added.

Elizabeth Gleason, the sister of Siobhán Rice, 19, who died in the Talbot Street bombing, said her family had always felt they lacked the detail of her sister’s death.

“Thirty years ago seems like yesterday,” she said.

“I think this is one of the most emotional days we’ve had to date.”

Michael McCarthy, the brother of Collette Doherty, who was killed while nine months pregnant in Talbot Street, said her family still do not know what happened to Collette’s baby.

Helen Tuohy, the niece of Christopher Fitzgerald, whose wife Lily was killed in the attack on Talbot Street, said the bomb was also a contributory factor in the death of her uncle three years later.

“Christy never really recovered from his injuries and the loss of his wife,” she said.

“I was told there was not an inch of his body that didn’t contain slivers of glass and shrapnel.

“It was traumatic for him and he never got over it,” he added.

The inquest, which is being held at the Dublin International Arbitration Centre, will also hear evidence from survivors, eye witnesses, Garda witnesses and technical and forensic witnesses during the process, which is expected to last around two weeks.

Dublin city coroner Dr Brian Farrell said it was necessary to have a full and thorough inquiry into the circumstances of the deaths.

A Dáil committee called last month for a public inquiry to be established in Britain into the atrocity.

They called on the British authorities to appoint a senior international judge to investigate allegations of state collusion with the loyalist bombers who killed 33 people and the unborn Baby Doherty.

If the British government does not cooperate with the launch of an inquiry, the Irish Government should initiate proceedings against it in the European Court of Human Rights, the committee urged.

The inquests were officially reopened last year after being adjourned within two weeks of the bombings almost 30 years ago.

They were then further adjourned until all evidence could be gathered and until Justice Henry Barron’s report into the bombings had been published in December.

The fresh investigation was directed by the Irish Government after persistent allegations over a number of years of British security force collusion in the attacks.