Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

This morning, survivors and bereaved relatives of those killed in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974 and other fatal acts of collusion in this State gathered at the memorial in Talbot Street to remember their loved ones. It was a poignant and dignified ceremony on the 37th anniversary of the greatest loss of life on a single day during the conflict. A total of 34 lives were lost – 26 people, including a pregnant woman, in Dublin and seven in the town of Monaghan. We extend our continuing sympathy to all affected by the tragedies of 17 May 1974. We extend the same sympathy and solidarity to all who have experienced injury and bereavement in the conflict. Sinn Féin has consistently made it clear that it seeks a process of truth recovery, an international process which accords respect to all.

All of this is unfinished business between the people of Ireland and the British Government. It is very important to point out that to raise these issues is not to seek to rake over a dead past or to turn our backs on the future. A clear understanding of the past is required to move on and make political progress. It is disrespectful to the bereaved on all sides when politicians, political commentators and others dismiss their concerns as outmoded or even backward looking. The sense of hurt at such attitudes was expressed on behalf of the relatives at the wreath laying ceremony this morning.

The statement of the British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron, in June last year at the time of the publication of the Saville report on Bloody Sunday was very significant and welcome. He said: "It is right to pursue the truth with vigour and thoroughness. Openness and frankness about the past, however painful, do not make us weaker, they make us stronger." It is important to recall that this statement came at the end of a very long process. The Saville inquiry was so protracted and costly precisely because the various agencies of the British state, not least the British Army and the British Ministry of Defence, had sought for so long to prevent a proper inquiry and then to thwart it and delay it.

This was an inquiry into a massacre which had taken place before the eyes of the world and in which the perpetrators, members of the Parachute Regiment of the British Army, were plainly visible. It is not surprising, although it is equally unacceptable, that the victims of collusion have faced such a stone wall of silence and refusal on the part of the British Government. The people of Ireland and friends of Ireland were outraged by Bloody Sunday and the British Embassy in Dublin was burned to the ground. People in the Twenty-six Counties were attacked by British forces as well. Seeing the upsurge in support for Irish republicanism in the Twenty-six Counties in 1972, the British crown forces deployed loyalist counter-gangs, the heavily infiltrated Unionist paramilitaries. They bombed Dublin in 1972, 1973 and 1974. The purpose was to strike terror into the people in this State, to make them fear any show of solidarity with the oppressed Nationalist people of the North. This strategy was complemented by the Irish Government, which sought to blame republicans for the bombings and which tightened political censorship and repression in this State.

The Saville report gave hope to the bereaved and to the survivors of Dublin and Monaghan and of the other cross-Border bombings and fatal acts of collusion in this jurisdiction. It was a disgrace, in the context of the Dáil debate on the that report on last year, with its vindication of the families, that the Irish Government cut the funding for the only victims' group in this State, Justice for the Forgotten. It was equally disgraceful that we had a Taoiseach who failed to raise with the British Prime Minister the unanimous call of this Dáil for the British Government to furnish to an international judicial figure all files in its possession relating to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and the other fatal acts of collusion in this jurisdiction.

It is almost three years now since the Dáil passed that resolution on 10 July 2008. This motion before the Dáil today reaffirms that call. It mandates the Taoiseach to act with determination on this issue. We know from the history of the Bloody Sunday relatives' campaign how the British system works so assiduously to conceal the information in its possession. However, persistence has paid off and it is required again to vindicate the families who have been campaigning so long and hard under the banner of Justice for the Forgotten.

The Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights examined Mr. Justice Barron's reports and concluded:"We are dealing with acts of international terrorism that were colluded in by the British security forces." That sentence sums up the gravity of what is at issue. It took nearly 20 years for the families shattered by the May 1974 bombings to come together as a group. The name, "Justice for the Forgotten", conveys the predominant feelings of those families; they had been abandoned by successive Irish Governments and their tragedy has been turned into a footnote of history. Thanks to the campaigning of Justice for the Forgotten, a private inquiry headed by Mr. Justice Liam Hamilton was finally established by the Irish Government in 2000. Following the death of Liam Hamilton, Mr. Justice Henry Barron took over and most of the work of the inquiry took place on his watch. After the judge's initial private inquiry, he issued a report which was then published by a special Oireachtas committee. The committee then held hearings based on the report. Representatives of An Garda Síochána and the Irish Government appeared before the committee but, unlike in a full public inquiry, this format did not allow representatives of Justice for the Forgotten to cross-examine those appearing before the committee.

All along, the Barron investigations were hampered by the outright refusal of the British Government to co-operate. In February 2005, the Oireachtas justice committee issued a report which was scathing in its criticism of the lack of co-operation from the British Government. The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was found to be acting in conflict with the Good Friday Agreement because of his refusal, in a letter to the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, to establish an inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974. The report also criticised British Secretary of State, Paul Murphy, for his spurious claim that a "further major and time-consuming search" through British records was not possible.

However, it was not only the British Government that suppressed the truth. In March 2004, the Oireachtas justice committee, in its final report on Barron, raised very serious questions about why the Garda investigation into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of May 1974 was so limited and of such short duration. That report stated that it was "extraordinary that the investigation into an atrocity of this scale could or should be wound down so soon". The Barron report was critical of the conduct of the Garda investigation itself. The sub-committee stated that the authorities in this jurisdiction at all levels "could have been far more vigorous in their attempts to identify and bring to justice the perpetrators".

In a process arising out of the Barron reports, senior counsel, Patrick MacEntee, carried out a probe of the Garda investigation of the 1974 bombings. The Garda investigation was closed down within four months of the biggest mass murder in the history of the Twenty-six County State and its total inadequacy has now been well exposed. What has also come out is the extent of collaboration between the Garda Síochána and the RUC at the time. It is clear that both on a political and security level, the Fine Gael and Labour Government of the day, led by the then Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, did not want to rock the boat with the British Government by exposing the extent of British forces' collusion in the bombings. The former Taoiseach, Mr. Cosgrave, himself refused to co-operate with the Barron inquiry.

This has been the experience of the survivors and the bereaved in this jurisdiction who for so long, and with very good reason, felt they had been forgotten. We acknowledge the work of Deputies on all sides in successive Dáileanna in taking up these cases and supporting the campaign for truth and justice. We acknowledge also the work of successive Governments, as far as that work went. However, much more should have been done.

Truth recovery needs to be part of the peace process. Now is the time for the Irish Government to pursue the demand for truth and justice with real determination. It is possible to do so while building on the friendly relations between the people of the island of Ireland and the people of the island of Britain. Indeed, we would argue that real and lasting peace cannot be built without honest attempts to resolve these long-standing issues. Now is time for justice for the forgotten. I echo the group's call made today, and let it re-echo from this Chamber: release the files.

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