Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 24 September 2015
Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement
Outstanding Legacy Issues affecting Victims and Relatives in Northern Ireland: Discussion
9:30 am
Seán Conlan (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source
What was Ms Bernadette Joly’s personal experience in the Republic of victim support services? What kinds of supports were available? We heard earlier there were little or no supports for the victims in Dublin-Monaghan, Dundalk, Castleblayney or Belturbet or for Austin Stack or the Fullerton family.
Would the establishment of a historical investigations unit in the Republic be important? Would the delegations prefer to see prosecutions, if they were still possible, of anyone from the Glenanne gang involved in the Dublin-Monaghan bombings? I am never happy to say this but I do not think there is any possibility that the British Government will admit it was involved in state-sponsored terrorism in another jurisdiction in the EU. In my lifetime, I cannot see that happening.
The unfortunate position is, what do we do in the Republic? It is all very well for cross-party calls for the British Government to release documentation. I do not see that happening, however. I do not see it ‘fessing up that it was involved in terrorism in the Republic of Ireland and in the North. It is certainly not going to happen in the next 20 or 30 years? What do we as legislators in the Republic do in starting investigations into the Dublin-Monaghan bombings and the incidents in Belturbet, Dundalk, Castleblayney, as well as the other cases to which I referred earlier? How can we be proactive in getting our security forces to release all the information they have at their disposal so we can carry out our own investigations rather than expecting the British Government to do something it is not likely to do?
In any part of the democratic world, it should not be expected that solicitors defending clients would be under threat from state forces or actors. It is important the Pat Finucane issue is resolved. Anyone involved in the legal profession, acting in their clients’ best interests, must feel free to go about their work without fear of intimidation or worse. Everyone in society should be concerned about ensuring there is a resolution to the Pat Finucane case. It is not just an Irish issue but a global one.
Margaret english
Posted on 11 Nov 2015 10:41 am (Report this comment)
I can assure you that the families of Dundalk Bombing got no support, my father Hugh Watters was murdered in this bombing, we werent even informed by the Gardai my dad was dead , his three daughters searched for him , and when we eventually got to the Louth hospital we werent allowed in, and my sister climbed in the window at the back of the hopital to be told our dad was dead, then we had to go home and tell my mum.
The peace agreement gave me more heartache when the victims commissioner John Wilson told me that the knew who killed my dad, of course in all my innocence I said no you have the wrong bombing nobody was charged with my dads murder, he said did I ever hear about The Jackal Robin Jackson The Glennane Gang, I was absolutely stunned. I have been trying since for trugh and justice for my dad.
I am at present arranging a celebration of their lives 40years since the bombing 19thDecember 1975
were Jack Rooney and my dad Hugh Watters were murdered. What hurts me more is the Oirechtas Committe concluded in 2006 that their was collusion with their deaths, I would have thought theyd would have kept in contact with the families for updates of their progess of getting files from England., but not a word from them since, the certaintly rubbed salt into our woulds.
Regards Margaret English
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