McAleese should speak up for bombing victims

Freed from the constitutional constraints of the presidency, Mary McAleese, as a private citizen, rebuked Pope Francis for his qualified support for corporal punishment in the home, despite the Catholic Church being a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

McAleese has the power to focus public attention.

On May 17, 1974, 34 people in Dublin and Monaghan were killed by bombs.

In November, 2006, a report issued by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice spoke of “acts of international terrorism that were colluded in by British security forces”.

The report highlighted British obstruction in the investigation of crimes such as the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and the killings of Dublin Bus workers in 1972 and 1973 in other bombings.

The dignity, honour and memory of those killed and bereaved in the State, as a result of British security force involvement, are no less worthy of the former president’s intervention.

The families of all those who were killed are still being denied justice.

A time comes when silence is betrayal.

Tom Cooper

Templeville Road

Templeogue

Dublin 6w