Bombing victims have suffered enough

IT is inconceivable that during all the negotiations and discussions regarding the date of the British queen’s visit to Ireland, no one took into account the importance of choosing a date that would not send out controversial signals.

To choose the anniversary of the Dublin Monaghan bombings — the biggest mass murder in the history of the State and single greatest atrocity of the Troubles north or south — would make one wonder one of two things. Do those in charge want the visit to be as controversial as possible?

Or does the British establishment want to really rub our noses in it?

Why has our Government agreed to this grossly insensitive date?

Do they not realise the significance of a visit, by the Commander in Chief of the British Armed Forces, on the exact day that people in this country mourn their loved ones brutally murdered with the help of British intelligence?

The claim that British intelligence was involved in the massacre has been well backed up on numerous occasions over the years by senior British intelligence officers as well as senior army and garda personnel. Ironically, the make-up of our current Government — Fine Gael and Labour — is exactly the same as was in place when the atrocities occurred in 1974.

It was that very government, led by Fine Gael’s Liam Cosgrave, which allowed the investigation to be wound down in a matter of weeks without any justification or right to object.

Mr Cosgrave, the then Taoiseach, has consistently refused to comment on the controversy and even refused to take part in the Barron Inquiry into the events.

His failure to vindicate the rights of his own people and his refusal to be held to account, makes it all the more important that the current leader of Fine Gael ensures the families of the victims do not suffer any further pain.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny now has a duty to either request the visit be rescheduled or request the queen lays a wreath at the monument to the murdered victims.

It is all very well talking about the queen visiting places significant to our historical and war-torn past, but the victims of Dublin and Monaghan never choose to fight in any wars on any side.

Thirty-five ordinary people, including a nine-month pregnant woman and her unborn baby, as well as a young mother, father and both their infant children, robbed of life to achieve some political goal. Most of the victims’ loved ones are still alive and still cry out for justice.

Patricia McKenna

Glasnevin

Dublin 9