Tanaiste to raise question of full co-operation on Dublin-Monaghan bombings with London
Please see Exchange below between FF TD Brendan Smith and Tanaiste, Micheal Martin in the Dail yesterday. Our thanks to Deputy Smith for forwarding this to us.
(Hopefully the Tanaiste and new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland after next week’s UK general election will also be willing to discuss other deaths that occurred south of the Border, such as those at Mullaghmore in August 1979, two senior RUC officers outside Dundalk in March 1989 and the Omagh bomb in August 1998. All of these, and other deaths had a strong Southern security dimension to them that it would be hypocritical and self-defeating for the two governments to ignore if there is to be a rapprochement on Truth Recovery and Reconciliation.)
QUESTIONS – JUNE 27 2024
DEPUTY BRENDAN SMITH
Thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. As the Tánaiste knows, we had commemorations in both Dublin and Monaghan on 17 May last to mark the 50th anniversary of the deadliest day of all during the Troubles, when 34 innocent people were killed and 300 injured. On a number of occasions in this House we have requested the British Government to co-operate with a full investigation by giving access to all papers to an independent, eminent, international legal person to ensure those investigations can be advanced. There is clear evidence of collusion between the Glenanne gang and British intelligence. We have to make progress on these investigations.
I thank the Deputy for his persistence and his advocacy for the families of the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
On 17 May this year, we marked the 50th anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, a brutal and devastating act of violence in which 34 people lost their lives and 300 people were injured. Alongside the Taoiseach and President Higgins, I attended the very moving and powerful memorial event in Dublin on 17 May, organised by Justice for the Forgotten, where I spoke to some of the survivors and families of the victims. The strength and dignity they have displayed throughout their fight for truth and justice for their loved ones should be acknowledged.
On 14 May, the Dáil unanimously supported a fourth motion calling on the British Government to allow access by an independent, international judicial figure to all original documents relating to these atrocities, following all-party motions from 2016, 2011 and 2008.
The continuing absence of a substantive response from the British Government to requests for access to material is a matter of significant concern and one which I raise consistently in my engagements. At the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference on 29 April in London, and during a meeting in Dublin on 18 April, I reminded the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland that the victims, survivors and families of those affected by the Dublin and Monaghan bombings have now been waiting half a century for answers and I urged him to respond to the calls made by this House.
The Government stands ready to engage with the new UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when appointed and will continue to press the British Government to respond positively to the demand for answers.
I thank the Tánaiste for his reply and recognise that he has been raising these issues for some time. As well as the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and other atrocities, I appreciate that he raised with the former British Prime Minister the bombing of Belturbet in December 1972. I assume that the Tánaiste will meet at an early date the new secretary of state and the new Foreign Secretary after the British general election on 4 July. I ask the Tánaiste to ensure that this particular issue and the whole legacy issue are on the agenda for those meetings. Thankfully, the UK Labour Party has given a clear indication that it will repeal the legacy legislation. That is all relevant to the question before us as well.
I am particularly anxious that the British Government can no longer try to use the excuse "for national security interests" in not providing access to an independent person to all files and papers pertaining to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. It is long beyond time the British Government recognised the requests of successive Irish governments and the requests of a sovereign Parliament, our Oireachtas, to give access to those papers to an independent, eminent legal person.
In the context of whatever happens after the British general election and a new government being formed, we stand ready to engage with a new government to press these issues and to get resolution to them. We have consistently raised the provision of original documents with my British counterpart since taking office. I recognise that governments have a responsibility to protect national security, but the passage of time since events took place also matters. That is the point I have made, and it is made in the report of Operation Kenova. The bombings in Dublin and Monaghan happened five decades ago, and I do not believe there is any reasonable excuse for continuing to prevent access to information and truth for the families after all that time.
I reiterate that people who lost family members and people who were injured say to me that they are getting older and the truth has not been established. It is more than 50 years ago now that these atrocities were carried out. We have to get the truth established. There is a moral, international, legal obligation on the British Government to co-operate with investigations. I would also like the Tánaiste to insist to the British Government and the Northern Ireland authorities that there must be full co-operation with the Garda investigation into the Belturbet bombing of December 1972, in which two young teenagers, Geraldine O'Reilly and Patrick Stanley, were killed. There were horrific incidents that night, on 27 December 1972, in Clones and Pettigo as well. We need full co-operation by the Northern Irish authorities and the British authorities in the full and comprehensive investigations into those bloody atrocities, which cost the lives of innocent people.
I will absolutely do that. I agree with the Deputy that this has taken far too long. We recently had the Seán Brown case, for example, which I have raised with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. I hope that with the new British government we will be able to revisit the legacy Act because the Operation Kenova report points in the right direction. It is a hugely significant report. It underlines the need for a comprehensive, collective and victim-centred approach to legacy issues and places a strong emphasis on the importance of the European Convention on Human Rights as a safeguard of the Good Friday Agreement. It lays bare also the futility, the immorality and the sordid nature of the Provisional IRA campaign and the failure of republican leadership to acknowledge and apologise for those activities and the intimidation of families. Legacy is multi-sided, and there has been a huge failure on the part of Sinn Féin and others to deal with that aspect of the legacy in respect of Enniskillen and so on. It is all laid bare in Kenova. I look forward to Operation Denton. I hope it will create an opportunity to really move on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings case. I have met with Sir Iain Livingstone. Given the frankness of the Operation Kenova report - he did not pull his punches in any direction, and it was fair and upfront and dealt with legacy across the board - I would like to think the Operation Denton report might do likewise. It could give us a basis with a new British government to move forward on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings as regards inquiries.
