Monaghan-Dublin Bombings -- Stormont Watch

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Date Posted: Thu, Apr 05 2007, 14:30:40 PDT
Author: Botched Garda Probe
Subject: Monaghan-Dublin Bombings
In reply to: Civil Rights Veterans 's message, "How the Loyalist death-squads were re-armed" on Wed, Apr 04 2007, 21:24:26 PDT

Posted by: "Lawrence Morton" redlarry1962@yahoo.co.uk lwrncmorton
Wed Apr 4, 2007 10:08 pm (PST)
Serving garda� who were responsible for a botched probe into the 1974 bombings in Dublin and Monaghan must quit now, victims' families said today.

The Justice for the Forgotten group claimed a two-year Government-commissioned report into the paramilitary atrocities was blocked by lost files or shoddy Garda records.

Legal advisor Greg O'Neill told a news conference in Dublin: "Those who had responsibility in this area and failed, know who they are."

When asked if he was referring to currently-serving members of the Garda force, he replied: "Yes".

He added: "If this had happened in any other country, there would have been mass resignations by now."

A total of 33 people died and 300 were injured when four car bombs, blamed on loyalist paramilitaries, exploded in Dublin and Monaghan on May 17, 1974.

Veteran barrister Patrick MacEntee's 249-page report would "make any reasonable person want to cry" Mr O'Neill said.

He claimed Mr MacEntee's investigation was hampered by an appalling catalogue of errors and failures on the part of the Garda�.

Mr O'Neill also suggested there were sinister forces at work which were not uncovered by Mr MacEntee.

"There is a dark hand, in my view, which this Commission of Investigation failed to investigate," he noted. "It seems to be an invisible virus in the body politic."

Justice for the Forgotten said the Garda force was unable to identify when investigations were wound up, what files went missing and when and who had custody of the documents.

"The impact and effect of the report is breathtaking and terrifying in terms of the faith and trust that citizens of this country put in the national police force," added Mr O'Neill.

Another legal adviser to the victims' families, Cormac O'Dulachain accused senior Garda officers of pursuing a "culture of denial" throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

He claimed that garda� had given information to Mr MacEntee in the past two years which had been withheld from a previous inquiry by Justice Henry Barron.

Justice for the Forgotten spokesperson Margaret Urwin said the D�il and Seanad must now press ahead with comprehensive debates on collusion.

Members of the campaign group also claimed that the Garda treated murders in Co Monaghan differently from those in Dublin.

"A lesser degree of importance was attached to them," added Mr O'Neill.

"Nothing in the report answers our questions or gives us any degree of comfort."

The Commission of Investigation into the bombings was established in April 2005 under new legislation to fast-track inquiries.

Mr MacEntee and his officials are believed to have travelled outside the Republic to interview individuals with crucial evidence.

The terms of reference of the Commission of Investigation were to undertake a thorough investigation and make a report on specific matters considered by the Government, including why the Garda investigation into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings was wound down in 1974 and why the garda� did not follow up a number of leads.

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