Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)

I welcome the opportunity to support this motion and commend the relatives of the victims and members of Justice for the Forgotten on the trojan work they have done to keep this matter before the public. For the past 37 years they have commemorated the victims on an annual basis. We should acknowledge the continued grief and distress experienced by the relatives and families of the victims of the various bombings. Many of them feel abandoned and they have an overwhelming desire for justice and closure. This all-party motion is important in that regard and it must be pursued by the Government until the British authorities make the relevant files available.

Many of us are aware of this ongoing grief and distress through our association with some of the families concerned. In my own case, I am acquainted with the Bradshaw family from Fethard, County Tipperary. George Bradshaw lost his life in the first of these bombings in December 1972. He was a young, 30 year old bus driver with a wife and two children. His colleague, Tommy Duffy, who was a 24 year old bus conductor, also lost his life in that bombing.

It is a disgrace that the British authorities refused to co-operate with the Barron investigation or the sub-committee which reviewed Mr. Justice Barron's report. The sub-committee concluded that it was dealing with acts of international terrorism in which British security forces had colluded. That finding was not made lightly. The sub-committee also referred to the Good Friday Agreement, which states: "The participants believe that it is essential to acknowledge and address the suffering of the victims of violence as a necessary element of reconciliation." It seems impossible to reconcile the stance of the British authorities with that element of the Agreement.

As Justice for the Forgotten has pointed out, the coincidence of this visit with the 37th anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings offers an opportunity for the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, to repeat what he did on 15 June 2010 in regard to Bloody Sunday. On that occasion he said in the House of Commons:

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.

See this speech in context