Barron Report - Relatives are owed public inquiry

HAVING been denied justice for close on three decades, the relatives of victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings deserve nothing less than a sworn public inquiry into the atrocities.

The Government can no longer resist demands for an in-depth probe into the shocking events of 1974 when 33 innocent people were killed in broad daylight on a balmy May afternoon.

Only a stone-hearted administration would turn a deaf ear to the plight of relatives who yesterday recounted their harrowing experience at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice.

It was the first time members of the poignantly named Justice For The Forgotten group had an opportunity to relive their tragic stories in a public forum. And what damning evidence of neglect by the State they recounted.

Doors were slammed shut in their faces many times, according to Alice O’Brien, who lost her sister, her brother-in-law and their two children in the bombing of Parnell Street in Dublin.

Expressing the hope that a door may finally be opening, she accused the Fine Gael-Labour coalition of the day of doing nothing. Similarly, she claimed subsequent garda investigations came to naught.

In a sinister development, the results of investigations conducted at the time apparently vanished simultaneously both from garda records and Department of Justice files. Whether those documents went missing by accident or design, the whiff of suspicion needs to be cleared up in the public interest.

Yesterday’s scathing criticism from relatives leaves no doubt about their belief that any hearing other than a public inquiry amounts to a waste of time and money.

Yet, last month’s report from Mr Justice Henry Barron was telling in that it accused the Government at the time, led by Liam Cosgrave, of showing ‘little interest’ in pursuing the perpetrators. Significantly, this criticism flushed out conflicting statements from former Fine Gael and Labour politicians about the handling of the bombing crisis.

There should be no misapprehension about the role of the Barron commission. It was not a public inquiry and was never intended to be regarded as such. But his report has effectively laid the foundations for an inquiry to now take place.

As emphasised by committee chairman Sean Ardagh, the purpose of the Dáil hearing is to draw lessons from the Barron exercise and decide whether a public inquiry is warranted. Though Justice Barron found no evidence of collusion between loyalist bombers and Northern security forces, he did not rule out possible ‘involvement’ of individual RUC, UDR or British army members.

Persistent reports of collusion demand that Britain open its files to scrutiny. While its track record in the murky world of espionage makes co-operation unlikely, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern must use his close relationship with Prime Minister Tony Blair to ensure evidence of collusion is brought into the light of day.

Nothing short of a full public inquiry, with powers to compel witnesses and search for documents, will satisfy the relatives who feel they have been abandoned, misled and marginalised.

After 30 years of despair, it is imperative for Government to at last put the Dublin and Monaghan atrocities, which claimed so many lives, under the penetrating searchlight of a full sworn inquiry.