Urgent progress needed on bombing investigations – Deputy Smith

Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith has reiterated his call for the British Government and the authorities in Northern Ireland to co-operate fully with the investigations into the Dublin-Monaghan and Belturbet bombings.

The Cavan-Monaghan TD raised the issued again in the Dáil last week following commemorations to mark the 50th anniversary of the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, which killed 34 people and injured 300 others.

“The Oireachtas has 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,” said Deputy Smith.

“There is clear evidence of collusion between the Glenanne gang and British intelligence. We have to make progress on these investigations.”

Deputy Smith called on the Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin to ensure that legacy issues are on the agenda when he holds meetings with the new Foreign Secretary after the British election on July 4, adding that the British legacy legislation needs to be urgently repealed.

“It is more than 50 years ago now that these atrocities were carried out,” Deputy Smith said.

“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."

Tánaiste Micheál Martin, in his response, said the Dáil had unanimously supported a fourth motion calling on the British Government to give access to all original documents relating to these atrocities.

He also informed Deputy Smith that he would stand ready to engage a new Government in Britain and to “press these issues and get a resolution to them”.

The Tánaiste said: "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."