Opinion

Dublin and Monaghan families deserve answers 50 years on - The Irish News view

British government should allow independent access to classified documents to establish extent of collusion with UVF bombers

A hand is placed on the memorial at a wreath-laying ceremony to mark the anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings
It is exactly 50 years since four no-warning bombs in Dublin and Monaghan resulted in the greatest single loss of life on any day during the Troubles (Brian Lawless/PA)
By The Irish News

It has been exactly 50 years since the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, which left 34 civilians including an unborn child dead and almost 300 seriously injured, representing the greatest loss of life on a single day of the Troubles.

There were many other appalling days in the course of the conflict, all of which brought shame on either loyalists, republicans or the forces of the state, but there is something particularly poignant about today’s anniversary.

While violence was generally running at a shockingly high level at that time, the vast majority of it was concentrated in specific parts of the north, where citizens were acutely aware of the risks they faced and as far as possible took appropriate precautions as a matter of course.

Although there had been sporadic episodes in the south, most people there had no reason to believe that they might be targeted and at that stage were going about their daily routines in a perfectly normal way.

A stranger parking a car with number plates from another jurisdiction, in the centre of either a bustling city or a quiet regional town, was never likely to attract the kind of attention which would almost inevitably have followed north of the border, with the result that ordinary men, women and children were hugely vulnerable to the subsequent carnage.

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There is a disturbingly familiar pattern after atrocities, when the authorities organise a range of major investigations and promise that the perpetrators will be brought to justice

The aftermath of the second Dublin bomb, which exploded on Talbot Street at 5.31pm, just three minutes after the first attack in Parnell Street
The aftermath of the second Dublin bomb, which exploded on Talbot Street at 5.31pm on May 17 1974

Like so many other relatives of victims from all sections of society, the Dublin and Monaghan families have instead endured decade after decade with little progress, no convictions and key pieces of evidence still missing.

The most basic facts emerged fairly quickly at the time, as it became known that an Ulster Volunteer Force gang had hijacked or stolen vehicles in the north, packed them with explosives, driven them across the border to densely populated areas and escaped the scene before the four devastating no-warning blasts took place.

What has never been fully established is the true scale of the assistance the UVF received from elements within the British security forces and the complete background to the deeply flawed initial Garda investigation

What has never been fully established, despite the Barron report of 2003 and the subsequent McEntee commission of 2007, is the true scale of the assistance the UVF received from elements within the British security forces and the complete background to the deeply flawed initial Garda investigation.

Many of these and other questions could be resolved if the British government was finally to allow independent access to and full scrutiny of the classified documents relating to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings which it holds.

All the grieving families connected to the dreadful events of May 17 1974 deserve nothing less.