Belturbet bombing file for DPP still awaited
Gardaí continue to examine “a number of lines of inquiry” in finalising a file before it is sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider whether there is enough evidence, more than 50 years on, to finally charge an individual or individuals in relation to the Belturbet bombing.
Two teenagers - Geraldine O’Reilly (15) from Staghall and Patrick Stanley (16) from Clara, Co Offaly, a gas delivery assistant - were killed when the 100lb bomb exploded at 10:28pm on December 28, 1972. The explosive device was concealed within a parked red Ford Escort.
More than a dozen others were seriously injured in the blast, one of three suspected UDA attacks to occur 30 minutes apart - the others at Clones (10:01pm) and Pettigo, Donegal (10:50pm).
No one has ever been charged in connection with the attacks.
“No developments yet. We are preparing a file for the Direction of Public Prosecutions (DPP). We are looking at a number of lines of inquiry and that investigation is ongoing,” Chief Superintendent for the Cavan Monaghan Louth Garda Division, Alan McGovern, told the Celt this week.
News last March that a prosecution file was being readied following an appeal for new information launched by An Garda Siochana in the lead up to the 50th anniversary of the atrocity.
Since then, there has been fresh engagement with both Interpol and the Police Service of Northern Ireland on the investigation.
The renewal of the investigation and public appeal in December 2022 saw, for the first time, new information published. It included a description of a man believed to have driven the bomb-laden red Ford Escort into Belturbet. The car had been stolen from outside a house in Enniskillen.
A photofit, taken from information supplied by personnel manning Aghalane Bridge Customs Post that fateful night, was also shared.
Separately, information was also sought to identify a man seen driving a stolen Morris 1100, registration 431 LZ, that contained the Clones bomb. This vehicle was stolen from a carpark in Enniskillen sometime between 6:30pm and 7:35pm on December 28, 1972.
In April 2023 members of the Garda Water Unit and PSNI divers plunged into the Woodford River close to the old Aghalane Bridge hoping to dredge up anything that may have been discarded by the bombers as they fled back across the border.
The search, and much of the renewed investigation into the bombings, was led from the specialist Belturbet bombing incident room set up at Ballyconnell Garda Station.
Cavan-Monaghan TD Brendan Smith recently reiterated calls for the British Government and the authorities in Northern Ireland to co-operate fully with investigations taking place into the historic bombings.
Four motions to date in the Dáil have unanimously supported the call for the British Government to handover all original documents relating to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in 1974; the Miami Showband massacre in 1975; and bombings in Belturbet, Clones, Dundalk and Castleblayney among 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.”
Gardaí have themselves provided intelligence material to an independent police review, codenamed Operation Denton, facilitated after Minister for Justice Helen McEntee issued a special directive authorising the share of information. The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI) meanwhile is currently conducting its own examination into the alleged activities of the loyalist Glenanne Gang, and how its membership may be implicated in the bombings.
Operation Denton is being led by former Police Scotland chief constable, Iain Livingstone, and the ombudsman's probe is running a parallel investigation into the collusion claims, codenamed Operation Newham.